Of Cracks And Being Amy
by DoctorWhoChica
Summary: What happens when Amy Pond tries to change the fact that the Doctor left her waiting for twelve long years? How will the Doctor react to what she has done? And will she destroy all of creation in the process?
1. Of Cracks and Being Amy

*I do not own these characters, I've merely borrowed them. I was inspired to do this by wondering just what is causing the mysterious cracks that are following the Doctor and Amy Pond around everywhere. Also, I've explored wondering things like how did the Prisoner Zero know the Doctor was a Time Lord, or anything about the cracks if it wasn't the cause of them? And what if the Doctor had a chance to possibly change past events like leaving little Amelia behind? Would he?

**Spoiler Alert: If you haven't seen The Eleventh Hour yet and don't wish for any spoilers, don't read on.**

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_"The cracks in the skin of the Universe, don't you know where they came from?"  
_

It knew what they dare not. The Doctor and Amelia Pond. It knew all about them. It knew things it couldn't. It knew things it shouldn't. Yet, neither thought to question it. Known only as Prisoner Zero, it was neither male nor female. It held a rather worm-like form, yet could become most anything or one under the right circumstances. And had used this talent of its' to gain fortune and destroy many beings lives. Thus, it was captured and held in a highly guarded prison by the Atraxi. Mainly because it had used a sleeping Atraxi to commandeer an entire fleet of their ships and forge them into a battle of which they had no business being. It had caused the death of many. And so it had been forced into a forever prison. Left to rot here until the end of its existence.

Until something happened.

"Doctor, are you sure this place has a bakery?" Amy Pond looked about skeptically. The place looked cold and empty. They'd landed on this bit of land, it looked more like a meteor than a planet. And they'd landed inside a hall that to Amy looked like some kind of hospital ward or something. The Doctor had insisted they come for some rare delicacy he'd been craving. Him and his food cravings!

"Uh, Well." He adjusted his bow tie and glanced around. "I wouldn't take us to the wrong place except that it seems that I have. But, since we're here, we may as well see where here is." The Doctor said brightly, grinning. Amy grinned back. "You go that way, and I'll go this way, yeah?" He nodded to her and she trotted off happily. She'd been traveling with the Doctor for some time now and was never disappointed.

She glanced back in time to see the Doctor disappear around a corner. She hoped he didn't get himself into too much trouble. She turned back and nearly ran smack into a glass wall. She blinked at it. It looked like some kind of atrium, housing some kind of creature by the looks of it. A large metal pot in the corner with water, and some strange leafage on the ground of the otherwise bare room. "Is this a zoo then? Some sort of alien zoo?" She thought out loud, wondering if it was, if it had a petting zoo.

A large, long snake and worm-like creature dipped down from its hiding place on the ceiling to stare at her. It came face to face with her through the glass. She screamed and stumbled back. "Its you!" She felt shock course through her veins. It was that creature! The one from when she first met the Doctor. Prisoner Zero! She gulped and stared in at it, willing it not to make her fall asleep and take over her form again. "But...How? How can you be?" She glanced around and saw a plate next to the glass. It read Prisoner Zero - Ward 8 - Maximum.

This Prisoner Zero was here and not executed. But she looked back at the creature that was just silently staring at her and a thought occurred to her. The Doctor was a time traveler so it was entirely possible that she was visiting before Prisoner Zero ever escaped! That must be why it wasn't rendering her unconscious. It hadn't yet met her to form a psychic link. Maybe she could prevent it from escaping in the first place. But such a thought only made another, far more intriguing thought come to fruition in her mind.

"Oh, The Doctor...The Doctor has the TARDIS!" She said slowly, staring still. "He can travel in time!" She exclaimed to the clueless creature. So why hadn't he? She could have kicked herself for not realizing it sooner, but he could have fixed all of this! Not realizing that there were serious laws of science and nature against crossing personal time lines and changing certain past events, Amy's annoyance at the Doctor's short sightedness was growing immensely. By instinct, something told her if she confronted him about this, he would say no and would do nothing. A small voice in the back of her mind warned her against any actions. She often ignored that voice anyway.

Instead she glowered at just how easy it would have been for him to fix everything. To swoop back in time and pick up little waiting Amelia Pond. To end her pain and suffering. To make her believe in people, and not-people, again. To give her something to believe in other than her own insanity. To keep her from having to go to four psychiatrists. To keep her from being scared and alone.

Well, maybe the Doctor didn't care to bother to do it, but Amy sure did! She would! She would save the little girl who needed a real fairy tale to be true, and keep her from the heartache and serious emotional damage that Amy herself had, had. She could go back and save herself! She'd been watching the Doctor steer the TARDIS for a while now. She was positive she could fly it all by herself. The TARDIS recognized her since it let her use the controls sometimes to help him. The only problem was, she wasn't sure how to get it to go back to a certain date.

"I'm going to do it." She said with a firm nod. "Amelia Pond won't have to suffer, because Amy Pond is on the case." She nearly glared at the curious creature, more out of determination than any sort of anger at it. With that, she hurried off to find the Doctor.

"Erm, Doctor?" He was staring through a glass atrium of his own, in at what looked like a twin-headed orange raccoon. "Oh, hello Amy." The Doctor smiled at her, but then looked back at the creature. "I think...We are in a prison." He sounded amused. "And if I'm not mistaken, this beast is a-Oh, and by the way, did you just scream a minute ago?" She interrupted him.

"Uh yeah, I screamed in excitement. This is just so great!" She waved it off. "Doctor, how do you set the TARDIS to a specific date?" He looked at her sharply. She flinched. She'd sounded too eager. He would see right through her plan, surely he would.

"Why?" There it came, the suspicion. He wasn't about to tell her how to go back in time, she was positive of it now. But she had to try.

Amy forced herself to calm down. "Well I want to learn. I want to be of as much help to you as I can." She told him firmly, nodding as if convincing herself as well.

The Doctor eyed her a long moment. "You're helpful enough. I'll not have you messing with her gears, she's already sensitive." He turned back to the creature again.

Amy sighed, defeated. There was no way she would convince him. But, suddenly, a new idea occurred to her. "Ah, well, that's all right. Can't blame a girl for asking." She laughed nervously, earning herself another look from the Doctor as she backed away. "I'm going to...Explore some more. See you about!" She took off at a near run. She knew he would no doubt be coming after her soon enough to see what that was all about. So she had very little time to spare.

She rushed back to the TARDIS and quietly shut the door behind her. She had remembered something. Something important. A few journeys back, the Doctor had let slip that twisting the red dial and pulling a black lever, along with pushing three certain buttons, would call up their last known destination, and doing it again would call up the one before that, and so on and so forth and that the TARDIS could hold literally thousands of back destinations. The Doctor was excellent at counting back to trips to Cardiff, even if they had been dozens or hundreds of trips back.

Amy sat back a moment and forced herself to count each and every journey she and the Doctor had taken and then the ones he'd taken without her. It was tedious work. She just hoped she could figure it out before the Doctor came back.

Luckily for her, The Doctor was currently distracted. He'd gotten into an argument with what looked like a tiny monkey, over a TARDIS key it had snatched from his pocket. The little creature apparently was one of the guard's key keepers. "Give. It. Here!" He chased after the little creature.

Meanwhile, Amy had grabbed a paper and pen and jotted down every journey, every trip, even the small ones, back to the two at the beginning that the Doctor took after first meeting her. And again. And finally she had it. His very first journey to her back yard. She was sure she had the right number. She started the motions of turning the dial, pulling the lever, and pushing the buttons, over and over in a pattern until her hand was sore. Then she went about starting the TARDIS up with the commands she knew nearly by heart, to get it to head for the next destination.

It was a very complicated ship and she wasn't sure she could steer it correctly, but she figured if she came even close, it was good enough. The TARDIS whirred to life. "Yes!" She stood back, anxious and excited, clutching one gear, than the other as she tried to steer the ship. She never once stopped long enough to let herself question what she was doing.

"Ah ha! Got it!" The Doctor grinned triumphantly as he ripped the key from the creature's hands. He stared at it happily. Until an all too frighteningly familiar sound filled the air. His eyes widened and he turned quickly, sprinting towards the sound, dread filling him with every step. "No, no, no, no, no! Amy!" He raced toward where the box was fading. He reached it just as it vanished. He stared after it, horrified. "Amy. What have you done?" He whispered softly to the air.

Amy was tossed about a bit more violently than she was used to. The TARDIS managed to break her grip on the console and thus, she wound up with a few bruises. It didn't seem to like what she'd done, as if it knew what she was doing was so very wrong. Frankly, Amy didn't care.

Soon the ship quieted and stilled. Amy climbed to her feet and rushed for the doors. She burst out eagerly.

Little Amelia Pond sat on her suitcase, her hands clasped together under her chin. The Doctor would be here any moment. He'd promised, and she knew he wasn't people so he wouldn't break a promise. Just minutes before meeting him, she felt more alone than she ever had in her life. Her parents were gone and her Aunt Sharon didn't care for her at all. She was a burden to her the woman who liked to go out to parties and and spend time with men, not care for a child that wasn't even her own. So Amelia had been on her own. She'd learned to be pretty strong and tough about it. But she was still very much a little girl. Meeting the Doctor had opened up a softer side of herself. The one that still believed in people. The wounds were there, but the Doctor, just by being there and making a promise, had already started to heal them for the little one.

She grinned brightly at the sound of the TARDIS as it re-materialized. Not once did she doubt his return. Not once did she have the chance to. It did look different, she noticed. Brighter blue, and something new on the door. She stared wide eyed, her little mouth opening slightly at the lady who stepped out of it. She climbed to her feet and picked up her little suitcase. "Who are you? Wheres the Doctor?" Did the Doctor have a wife? Maybe that was who the red haired lady was.

Amy grinned back at the little girl. "I'm Amy. And you're Amelia, yeah?" She already knew the answer. The little girl nodded. "The Doctor asked me to come get you, and take you to him. He said he'd made a promise and would never break it, so I came here straight away." She informed the happy little girl.

Oh, the heartache she was saving this child! The pain and misery. The total lack of faith in others. Amelia Pond would never have to be Amy. She could live the fairy tale that Amy had always dreamed of. She wouldn't have to see the psychiatrists or be the town joke. She would always feel loved and cherished. She wouldn't be forced to sit out here until well into the next day when her aunt had to use force to drag her inside. She wouldn't have to have her wounds ripped open and bled dry from realizing she really couldn't rely on anyone but herself. Perhaps, the Doctor truly hadn't realized just how damaged little Amelia had become when he was twelve years late. Either way, Amy was going to prevent it. "Come with me?"

She held out her hand to the little girl. Amelia smile was even brighter. Of course the Doctor wouldn't break a promise. He'd given her back her faith, trust, and security. She believed in him fully. She grabbed her little suitcase with one hand and reached for the lady's with the other.

Amy reached out and took hold of the little girl's hand. There was a sudden clap of heavy thunder that made both Amy and Amelia jump. It was unlike any thunder either had ever heard before. It resounded off nearby houses and buildings to a near deafening degree. As if the heavens themselves were sending down a protest at this moment the two girls were sharing. Amy quickly got her wits about her. "Its alright, just a little thunder, come on." She lead the little girl into the TARDIS. "I'm not scared." Amelia protested bravely. Ah, she always was a brave little girl.

At that very moment, the universe and everything within its existence started to split. Just a tiny crack, yet big enough to destroy whole worlds if left there long enough. It collided not only with space, but with time as well. A little Amelia Pond from a week ago was playing out in her yard with her friend Rory when thunder struck. Rory ducked to the ground, fearful of being struck by lightening on a very clear day. Amelia shook, but reached out to pull the little boy up, insisting nothing was wrong. Even as at that very moment up in her very own bedroom, a crack appeared on her bedroom wall. Prisoner Zero, having listened to Amy Pond and her little rant, and watching the TARDIS come and now go, and seeing the Doctor's distress as he stared at the empty air, felt a coldness wash over it that it had never felt before. It glanced over its shoulder as a clap of thunder sounded and a rip gleamed in the wall behind it. The Doctor was too busy to even notice the creature. The creature felt an internal grin. A crack. In everything. A way out. Freedom at last! Long into the future, aboard a giant ship riding on the back of a star whale, a crack appeared, and all through out the universe this crack appeared, but it was centered around one girl. Amelia Pond.

The Doctor walked around and around the spot where his TARDIS had been. Where was she? Where had she gone? The thunder alone was ominous and his nature told him she had done something terrible. "I'm a Time Lord! How could I let something like this happen?" He didn't know he was being listened to. He dragged a hand through his hair and slumped back against a wall, thinking. He noticed everything around him now. Except he couldn't notice Prisoner Zero because Prisoner Zero was already slipping through the crack and exiting this world in favor of Amelia Pond's bedroom. He did, however, notice the little sign that said Prisoner Zero, and the pieces fell together in his mind.

Little Amelia Pond stared in wonder at the beauty around her. She had always believed the Doctor when he said all of those things about the TARDIS, but now she was seeing it first hand. She hugged her suitcase to herself and smiled. "Where is the Doctor? Can I go find him?" She asked Amy cheerfully. "Maybe he is in the swimming pool!"

Amy grinned down at her younger self. Had she really ever been so innocent? It was hard to imagine, yet here it was, proof right here for her to see. She really had been sweet little Amelia. "You can explore later, first we've got to get back to the Doctor. He's not here, but I know just where he is." She messed with the console, changing the dial, pulling the lever and pushing the buttons over again in a pattern, just once. Once would be enough to get back to her previous destination. "Sit tight, hold onto something." She told the little girl.

Amelia put her suitcase down and grabbed hold of the staircase as the TARDIS whirred to life. She stared around in wonder. She was getting to go on a trip in a time traveling ship! She was going to see the Doctor again and go on adventures with him! The excitement was unimaginably wonderful. She didn't even mind when the ship nearly tossed her to the floor. She had never been more happy in her life!

The Doctor knew where he'd gone wrong. He'd gone wrong so long ago. Back when he'd emotionally scarred a seven year old child. That stinging fact wasn't lost on him and he truly appreciated it for all its depth and outstanding monstrosity. The fact that all of this was his responsibility was never far from his mind. Amy wouldn't have done this if he hadn't caused her such a painful, lonely, and confusing childhood.

But he also knew she knew better. Even without him having to tell her not to cross her own personal time line, he knew she would know it wasn't right. That changing events that were already set in motion was wrong. She was ripping a hole in the universe, and while even he wasn't entirely certain of all of the consequences, he did know it could not be. Such things could never be, or he would have gone back long ago to right the terrible wrong he'd committed against that poor, lost little girl. He was very aware that Amy was a child inside, stunted in her growth because of him. And he worked every day at helping her heal and grow from it. But this was too much.

He heard the TARDIS' engines as it returned and he didn't even look up. For what was to come would be far worse than what had already been.

"The Doctor is out there?" Little Amelia let go of the stairs and ran for the door as Amy announced they were there. Amy nodded, grinning wildly. She was lost in the moment. Feeling very much like little Amelia, she was finally going to get the Doctor back in her life as he should have been, from the very start. "Yes! He's waiting just outside those doors!" Amy said just as excitedly. She was positive the Doctor noticed she'd gone missing along with his ship, and that he would be pacing frantically outside it now or rushing right in any moment.

Amelia giggled and hurried out into what looked like some kind of corridor. She gasped. "We really have travelled!" She glanced around and then caught sight of the Doctor leaning against a wall, not looking up. "Doctor!" She rushed over to him and smiled brightly up at him. But her smile slowly faded. For the look on his face was quite dark. He didn't speak to her at all. He didn't offer her a hug, or a friendly word. "...Doctor...?" She asked uncertainly, starting to feel worried.

Amy stepped out and over to the two. "So, Doctor, I fixed that little problem you caused a few years back." She almost sounded smug. The Doctor finally looked up, right at the adult her, and the coldness in his eyes made her shudder.

"This is _wrong_." He spoke in a low tone. "Very, very wrong. Amelia, go back inside the TARDIS." He told the little girl, his eyes still trained on Amy. He pushed himself away from the wall and moved past Amelia without even looking at her. Amelia turned to watch him, she frowned and felt scared. But the Doctor had told her to do everything he said. "Okay." She said, wondering if he was mad at her for some reason. He sure seemed mad. She slowly stepped back into the TARDIS and looked around, biting her lip. Had she done something to make the Doctor mad? Maybe he didn't like the fish fingers and custard after all.

"Whats wrong with you?" Amy folded her arms across her chest and stared right back at the Doctor as he approached her with alarming speed. He came face to face with her.

"You don't ever, ever cross personal time lines. Do you know what crossing into established events can do? It rips holes in the fabric of space and time! You've just created a paradox. One which...I'm..I'm not even sure I can fix!" He was waving his hands about wildly in her face now. "Do you realize what you've done?! You've created something that can not _be_!" He was getting angrier and angrier. And the fact that he wasn't raising his voice made it that much more frightening.

"I...Didn't know." Amy felt deflated. She could see why picking her own self up in the past might be a bad idea, but she really hadn't given it much thought. "I just didn't think..."

"Exactly!" The Doctor exclaimed, exasperated. "You didn't think, and now you've gone and caused a tear in the very core of existence! You're going home. And not just little you, big you too. And this isn't just an idle threat. It is a promise." He paused, as she felt her heart drop. "Why did you do-You think I didn't want to keep my promise from before? To go back and save little Amelia Pond from years of worry, stress, and wondering if she was actually insane? You think I wouldn't have gone back gladly if I could? But I couldn't. But you did. And now look what you've done. This promise, I'm keeping. You're going home." He turned away from her.

"But Doctor-" She could very easily have cried, if she wasn't so hardened from such a rough childhood. She'd learned how not to cry, long ago. How not to show her disappointment.

"No." He spoke ever more coldly. "You're going home. Amelia Pond is going home. And then I'm going to try to straighten out this disaster you've caused, and you can hope you haven't cost billions of lives in the process! Now, come on!" He marched into the TARDIS with such a fury, that Amy didn't dare_ not_ follow.

Amelia was standing near the console, looking around. She wanted to explore, but wasn't sure the Doctor would like it. He was angry about something. That was all she knew for sure. He stomped over to the console, twisting dials and turning levers. She stepped back and watched him, her eyes wide on him. "What's wrong?" The little girl asked him innocently enough.

The Doctor sighed, still not looking at her as he worked. Amy stepped quietly inside, trying to remain calm and strong as she slowly made her way over.

"Just a bit of wibbly wobbly timey wimey, Amelia, nothing to worry about." His voice was tight, which told her it was very much something to worry about. He'd never lied to her before, why was he lying to her now?

"Doctor, please!" Amy pleaded with him, careful to keep her voice quiet even as she felt her bottom lip trembling. The Doctor shot her a dark look and then went back to steering the TARDIS without another word.

Amy stood by wanting to cry while Amelia stood by wishing she could help the Doctor feel better and wondering who the girl was and what was wrong. Instincts told her not to ask just yet.

"There we go. You stay here." He demanded of Amy who was hurt and worried. The ship stopped and the Doctor moved around the console and picked up the little suitcase in one hand, then moved to take hold of little Amelia's hand. She quickly offered it up, trusting him fully as always. "Come with me." He lead her out of the ship and back to her own back yard, literally just moments from the time when he'd last left her here. He set her suitcase down.

"Uh, but. I thought we were going to time travel? You promised!" She looked up at him and frowned. He wasn't people. He wouldn't betray her trust like the others.

He bent down to her level. "Amelia," He looked right at her. "I'm sorry. Truly, I am." He spoke the words softly, but sincerely. He was sorry for what he'd done to the little girl. And he was sorry for what he was about to do to her. With that, he placed a hand on either side of her head and closed his eyes. She watched him, confused but not frightened. Suddenly she felt blackness taking over her conciousness. Her eyes rolled back in her head and she started to fall. The Doctor quickly caught her. He lifted her up gently into his arms. He carefully laid her next to her suitcase, making sure her coat was tucked firmly around her. He looked down at her sadly.

With heavy hearts, he reached out and stroked the little red head's hair. "Sleep well, Amelia. Good bye." He said softly before turning and leaving. He'd wiped her memory. Not of him, but of Amy coming back for her, and of her going on a trip in the TARDIS and meeting up with him again. She would only awake outside to remember waiting eagerly for his return and him not coming, much as she ever had. He could have been kind. He could have wiped every memory of him from her mind. If he had, he was sure she would grow up with far less damage. But enough changes in the time line had already been done. He couldn't risk creating more. She would have to grow up not being able to believe in anyone and obsessing about the magical raggedy Doctor. That was just how it was meant to be.

With such thoughts, and of the little girl he knew needed him so much, he turned and headed back to the TARDIS, abandoning her once more. This time was different though. This time he was doing it knowingly and purposefully. This time it hurt all that much more.

Amy was walking around the TARDIS worriedly. "Why did you do that?" She confronted him the second he returned. "Why did you make her go back?! Now she's going to have twice the trauma of being abandoned on top of you breaking your promise!" She was very angry now.

The Doctor shook his head. "She won't remember a thing. Don't worry, I took care of it. And now, for you." He went to the console. Amy trailed after him.

"But Doctor...You're really not going to make me go back, are you?" She sounded so lost, much as if she really were still very much a little girl.

He did feel a pang, but his anger abated any of that. "You stole my space ship, traveled back in time, and ripped a hole in creation itself. Yes, you're going back home!"

Her eyes were wide as she looked at him, panic stricken. Her Doctor. He was leaving her. Every bit of that little Amelia came trickling in, filling her to the very core of her being. Her lip trembled and she bit it to keep it from doing so. Her fears were growing. She felt as nearly every little child feels the first time their parents leave them in the care of someone else. Abandoned. Alone. Frightened. She was most definitely damaged. But, yet, she was something else too. She was Amy Pond. A tough young woman who'd learned long ago not to rely so heavily on others for any kind of support. Being with the wonderful Doctor had made her forget that for a bit. Finally, she got hold of herself.

She crossed her arms and stuck her chin up, looking at him challengingly. "Fine. I don't care. I'll go home. Rory's been waiting for me anyway." Not that she was returning for him or relying on him at all. It was just something to say, perhaps even in the hopes of tossing a tiny bit of jealousy at the Doctor even though she knew he wouldn't care. "Do what you like!" She waved a hand at him and then kept her arms back folded into place.

The Doctor paused. He looked over at her. Anyone who looked at her would see a strong young woman who was full of life and could take anything life threw at her. Everyone could see that. Anyone, but the Doctor saw more. He saw so much more. He saw the scared little girl inside, hiding behind the tough exterior so she wouldn't be wounded any more. He saw a wounded young woman who wasn't damaged goods, but who did need guidance and help and support as did anyone. He saw the strength in her and the potential she had.

"You're not getting away with it that easily, Amelia Pond." He knew she hated it when he called her Amelia. She shot him a surprised look and then glared.

"Thats right." He said, making up his mind. "You're going to help me fix this paradox you created. And then you're going to listen to a ten hour lecture on just why crossing the time lines is a bad idea and why you won't ever do it again!" He wasn't joking. He was very prepared to make her sit at a desk while he lectured her endlessly on every precaution and danger of such a thing.

"Well alright then. Lets get to it." She knew he wasn't joking and she accepted this. She'd made a big mistake, and somehow the fact that he wasn't abandoning her again, made her realize she was fearing something else even more than being alone. She was fearing having someone challenge that belief. But she was up for the challenge if he was.

"Fine!"

"Fine!" And off they went.

Perhaps the Doctor would always feel responsible for her. She would always be that little girl who needed him to come back, because she would always be waiting. The little girl who had won him over from the start. He knew he wouldn't be able to hold that anger for her, for too much longer. He knew her too well. Knew she would redeem herself. She always did. That was what made her, her. That was another reason he knew changing the time line was wrong. If she had never met him, or if he had come back as promised, in five minutes, and taken her with him. Yes, she wouldn't have been so damaged. But she also wouldn't have been so Amy.


	2. No Answers

Thank you very much for the reviews! I was going to make that first chapter the complete story, but I've decided to add on. Happy reading and writing!

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"I'm gonna fall!" Amy squeaked, clinging to the side of the ship for all she was worth. Her feet and hands were barely hanging onto ridges in the side of the starship U.K. The TARDIS hovered a few feet above and away. The beast was turning a bit on its side and she was slipping.

"Float, Pond." The Doctor smiled, unconcerned. He was standing in the doorway of the TARDIS, pointing his sonic at the crack in the side of the ship. It hadn't taken too long to find it. Amy was looking out at it when she slipped, dipping down. She was too awed by the sights around her and got a bit further away from the TARDIS than she'd meant to. When the beast started moving a bit erratically, it panicked her and she grabbed at the ship as if she were restricted by gravity and might otherwise plummet.

"Oh. Yeah." A sheepish Amy let go, allowing herself to free float. She laughed happily and twirled about as the Doctor opened the crack. The crack opened revealing darkness behind it. Luckily no creatures seemed to exit the crack, but one could never be too sure. He would have to check back later. Amy stayed clear of the opening. She wasn't really paying much attention. Even though she was supposed to be helping there wasn't much for her to do just now. She was rolling herself around and around now, enjoying the spinning sensation. It was very freeing!

The crack reverted and snapped closed. The Doctor glanced around and spotted Amy a good twenty feet away. He was watching her with a crooked smile until she started to drift even further. "You're going out of range." He cautioned her. Out of range of the TARDIS' protective air pocket would be a problem if she drifted too far. Amy turned, flipping over so her head was upwards towards the TARDIS, and started to swim through the air back to the Doctor. He didn't stay to watch her, he turned and went back to the TARDIS controls.

He gave his ship a slight glare, murmuring. "Naughty girl. Letting Amy take you away like that." He wasn't forgetting and he wasn't terribly forgiving that the TARDIS made it work out for Amy all too well. It may have known it was wrong, but it had no problems taking her right back to young Amelia and just in time, too. Not while his past self was still there, but while Amelia was waiting for him. It also had returned her to the prison a good half an hour after she'd first taken it even though he had it set to return twenty minutes into the future of his previous landing when he used it to track back. He was late for Amelia, he was late for Amy, and it had let her take off on her own. He knew the TARDIS had a mind of her own, but this was getting to be ridiculous. He was about to say more on it, but Amy was now pulling herself up and inside.

"Okay. Now where to? Back to Winston Churchill, right?" She asked, closing the doors and trailing over to him.

"Yes, and a few more other cracks that need healing." The Doctor nodded as he set the TARDIS back on course. "Behave." He scolded it quietly.

"Then can we go to another planet again? One in the future?" Amy asked excitedly. But the Doctor gave her a look. "What?" She asked, blinking. Why was he looking at her like that?

"You've still got a lecture coming. After we heal the cracks, no more extra-planetary trips until you have that lecture." She rolled her eyes. As much as she adored him, sometimes he was very more much like a father or big brother than a friend that she fancied more than she should. "Careful Doctor."

The look he shot her way was inquisitive. "Careful of?"

"Your age is showing." She teased, smiling. He directed her to tug a lever down and didn't respond to her teasing. Ah, he was still mad. At least he was willing to work with her on it though. Much better than dumping her off back at home!

"What did you do to me?" She asked suddenly.

He glanced at her worriedly. "What do you mean?"

"I mean little me. When you took me back, how do you know she won't remember anything?" This question had been burning in her mind.

He looked back at the controls, concentrating. He didn't answer her for several moments. "I did something Time Lord." He murmured. "She won't remember your getting her. She will remember meeting me though. I'm not going to change the time line more than necessary."

"So. Does that mean I did come back for myself when I was her, but I just don't remember it?" She sounded excited by that idea.

"Possibly. With Paradoxes it can be tricky." He was busy, only half-into the conversation they were having as he flew the TARDIS. "Hopefully so if we fix this it should stay safely hidden within her, or rather your, mind."

"Where did you leave her?" Amy asked, remembering with painful details her own experience of that long first night and day waiting for the Doctor.

He remembered the slight indent in the Earth, telling him that the suitcase had been set there previously with a bit of weight on it as if a small child had been sitting on it. It hadn't been hard to work out. "Where you found her. Outside waiting for me." He said this so quietly it was obviously something that was weighing on his mind. He didn't care for leaving a small child alone, much less alone at night outside. Anything could happen to her. But he hadn't a choice. Not a good one anyway.

"Oh." Amy was thoughtful. "I don't remember falling asleep outside, but I remember waking outside..." She said slowly. "The sun woke me." She didn't add that when it woke her, she'd been laying curled up on her side on the hard, cold ground shivering and had immediately started to cry. She'd pulled herself up after a few minutes and sat back down on her suitcase, determined to wait for him. It was late afternoon before her aunt dragged her inside. Physically. When she'd tried to make her come in by yelling at her, she refused, scared to miss the Doctor. It was all quite traumatic.

She silently wondered if she had remembered the 'lady' coming back for her and going to see the Doctor, if that would have changed how she grew up, but she knew there was nothing she could do about it. The Doctor certainly wouldn't go back and change that fact.

Her eyes suddenly lit up at a thought. "Doctor? Can you reverse it then?"

The Doctor looked over at her. "Reverse what?"

"Whatever you did to my mind when I was a little girl? Can you reverse it? Not for her, but for me now?"

"Why?" Apprehension laced his voice.

"Because I'm an adult now. If that did happen to me, you could make me remember it again. Then I could have my memories complete." Amy didn't like the idea of thoughts missing.

"They wouldn't complete your missing memories. You don't remember the daleks." He murmured thoughtfully, but Amy wasn't paying a lot of attention to that. She was more interested in remembering the Doctor.

"Can you do it? Give me back the memories you took?" The Doctor flinched. Every reminder of leaving that vulnerable little girl alone on the cold, hard ground outside, leaving her believing and knowing he hadn't come back for her, was akin to having a dagger made of ice slicing into his chest. More so than his anger at Amy for stealing his ship in the first place, something angered him far more. Having to leave Amelia on purpose. Maybe it was his cosmic punishment for not returning to her sooner, but he was angry for it.

"We don't have time to worry about that now. We need to fix this, Amelia." He spoke so abruptly she didn't try to argue with him further just now.

The next several hours were filled with locating each crack in reality and the Doctor using his sonic to heal it. Her job was to watch out for anything suspicious that might pop out of the openings or slip out unseen but effect things around them. She was also to ward off others who might get in their way. It went quietly, which Amy was grateful for. She didn't mind a good and scary adventure, but not when it could endanger others and was her fault. Aside from a couple of annoying people back in the year 1503 who tried to worship a crack, they hadn't run into any real troubles.

Most of the cracks didn't seem to be around anything too important. Though there was one where a rather large swarm of flies escaped from. That stalled the Doctor and Amy for a good hour and a half as they collected the flies in a large net to be released on a peaceful world whose only residence happened to be insects of all kinds. Since the crack they escaped through had already sealed shut, they couldn't send it directly back there. So the insect world was the second best thing the Doctor could manage. Amy saw he wasn't happy about it. About having to fix these problems she'd caused. About having to leave creatures out of place even if they were just flies.

By the time the final known crack was sealed, Amy could barely stand the perturbed look on the Doctor's face. He set the TARDIS in motion once more and sighed.

Amy walked over to him and touched his shoulder. He looked at her expectantly. "Doctor, I'm sorry." She said for probably the hundredth time since this all began. "I really am. I didn't mean to cause so many problems for you." She almost offered to let him take her back home, but couldn't quite bring herself to be that self-sacrificing. She just loved being with him too much to do that. She might have offered if she was positive he would deny the offer. But, she wasn't so sure anymore.

"I know. I know." He spoke quietly. Where was his robust attitude? He looked drained. Had her mistake caused his enthusiasm to evaporate? She really couldn't take much more of his indifference.

"Yell at me, will you!"

The Doctor's eyes widened slightly at her outburst. "What?" He sounded confused as she advanced upon him.

"Go ahead, yell at me for messing up. Tell me how awful I've been. How wrong I am. Just don't stand there going all quiet!" She grumbled, irritated.

He eyed her with a blank look that suddenly erupted into comprehension. "Oh, Amy. Is that what you think." He reached over and mildly poked her shoulder with his index finger. "_You_, need to see the bigger picture. I know you didn't mean to do it. Trust me, you'll be suffering a lecture from me soon enough, but there are other more pressing matters to attend to just now."

Amy frowned. "Like what then?"

"Lunch!" He grabbed for a button and pressed it with a happy little smile on his face. Here she was beating herself up over nothing! She'd been so sure he was brooding because of her stealing the TARDIS and crossing her personal time line with little Amelia. Yet, all along his mind was on food! Knowing him some sort of disgusting mix of meat and sweet.

She let loose a breath she'd been holding and found herself unable to not smile as she watched him. "Lunch sounds good." How he could thaw her raw emotions so easily, was still a mystery to her.

A short time later Amy found herself sitting on a picnic blanket across from the Doctor and eating a sandwich. They were somewhere in the seventeenth century. They were in the middle of a nice quiet field. Although there was beauty all around them: trees, flowers, birds, a little lake, none of this interested Amy. Her eyes were trained on the Doctor and the bucket he was holding.

"Whats in that?" The Doctor had gotten the food from some alien shop. He hadn't allowed her to leave the TARDIS when he did. She still wasn't allowed on alien planets until that lecture happened. Thankfully he didn't force his odd dietary trends on her. She was happy to eat a regular chicken sandwich while he ate whatever concoction he'd come up with this time. "This? Oh its chicken too."

"Really?" Amy eyed the small bucket suspiciously.

"Yeah." The Doctor pulled what looked like a white sauce dipped piece of chicken out of the bucket and took a bite. "Chicken and....Ckmbmr." He murmured this last part through a mouth full.

"And what?"

He chewed and glanced at her. "Cake batter." Amy's eyes widened. "You _do _know thats disgusting?"

"No, its just a bit of sweet and salty together. Nice blend. Really it hits the spot." The Doctor protested.

Watching him eat was like watching a toddler eat. You never knew what he'd put in his mouth next.

After a few minutes of eating, Amy decided to bring up another topic. Anything other than food and her mistake, would do. "So, about those daleks."

This got the Doctor's attention. He'd been dipping his chicken deeply into the cake batter and sucking it off. He paused, mid-suck to squint at her expectantly.

"Well, I mean, why is it you think I should remember them? I don't understand." This topic, she should have thought through a little more before bringing it up. It served at making the Doctor turn serious.

"You should. It happened. Your world was invaded by them. They moved Earth across the stars, Amy. They were collecting people in the streets. Killing them when they ran. How could you not remember such things." He'd put the bucket down, suddenly all of his focus was on her.

Amy stared back, giving a little unsure laugh. "But, that's crazy! The Earth moving? The daleks invading the whole planet? I wouldn't forget something like that. How would I?" She questioned, lifting her eyebrow.

"Think about it Amy. Haven't you heard anything on your world about the invasion? It was only a couple of years ago in your time." The Doctor folded his hands in front of him as he bored holes into her with his eyes.

"No. Nothing like that happened, Doctor. Are you sure you've got the right world?" She was teasing, but he wasn't having it.

"Amy, I've saved the Earth time and again from them, and every other threat that has come. If I know anything, it is your world." He shook his head and set the bucket down. He was staring deeply at the ground.

Staying quiet for a bit, Amy considered him. For a young looking man, he really was ancient. The weight on his shoulders so immense she knew she couldn't begin to fully appreciate it. But this thing about the daleks. How could they have invaded Earth without her noticing? She may not have been up on all the science news, but she was pretty certain this sort of story would have been splashed over every headline imaginable. Why hadn't she seen any of that? He had to be wrong. Maybe something did happen, but how it happened must not have been the way the Doctor thought. At least, that was all she could think. She didn't see how she couldn't remember something so big, so the Doctor just had to be mistaken.

"I just don't understand how you can't remember. It is not possible..." His baffled tone pulled her out of her own thoughts.

"Well," She said slowly. "If I did forget planets in the sky, as you said, I'm sorry?" She wasn't sure what else to say.

The Doctor was scanning her features and then abruptly jumped to his feet. Amy jerked, startled. She looked up at him and started to gather the left over food to throw away when the Doctor said something that made her entire body ice over.

"You have to go home."

Five simple words. Not spoken in anger, but spoken just the same.

Hadn't they just been over this? It took a full ten seconds for Amy to find her feet and voice. She climbed to her feet and stared wide eyed at him. "What? Why?!"

"Come on, Pond." He said absentmindedly. He quickly disappeared inside the TARDIS leaving Amy to trail after him with the garbage. She set the garbage aside and walked over to him on wooden legs.

"Doctor." He was starting the TARDIS up again. "Doctor." She tried not to lose it. He couldn't be sending her home now. Not now! "Please!"

He was busy with the controls and not paying any attention to her. She felt sick. "Doctor, please!" Her voice wobbled which finally caught his attention. He stopped and turned to her.

The look on his face was unreadable.

"Doctor...I thought you said I had a lecture coming. You can't make me go home...Without a lecture." She was clinging to straws now, anything that would keep her with him even a little bit longer.

The Doctor lifted a brow. "Oh, Amy." He admonished. "We have to return to Leadworth to investigate just why you can't remember." He gave her a 'you're a silly girl' sort of look, but there was affection in it. He went back to the working the ship's controls.

That left Amy torn. They were going back home to investigate, but he didn't exactly make it clear on whether or not he intended to leave her there when they were finished. With her heart in her throat, she could only nod.


	3. Waiting

Thank you guys! Sorry for taking so long between chapters. Life gets busy! This one is a bit short, but I'm already working on the next chapter to make up for it. Yes, Amy is still engaged, though I haven't addressed that issue in this story. At least not yet, not sure if I will be or not.

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"Pond." Amy looked up a bit too late. She ran directly into the Doctor. He didn't budge, but she stumbled back and caught herself before glaring lightly at him. Not that he noticed. "Yeah?" She finally responded, stepping closer. "What?"

He glanced back at her oddly. "No. Not you. The actual pond, Pond." He directed her attention to the aforementioned pond._ Here we go again_. Amy sighed loudly. "Its still just a duck pond. It has always been a duck pond." What was with him and that boring little pond?

The TARDIS landed in Leadworth, though not in her backyard but a few streets away. So they were making their way back to her place when he'd stopped so suddenly, once more mesmerized by absolutely nothing. He turned back to her. "There are no ducks." She didn't see the problem with this. Maybe no ducks were attracted to the area. "So what?"

"So...Its wrong." He murmured. His gaze swept over the pond distractedly before he suddenly darted away. Amy found herself running to try to keep up with him. That wasn't new, but she never knew what was going on in that head of his, which was frustrating.

Once more he was barging into Jeff's grandmother's home. The elderly woman stepped out of the kitchen, wide eyed. Amy followed and wondered if the poor woman might end up with heart failure one of these times he decided to just bust in like this. "Daleks!" He announced, much to Amy's chagrin. That was no way to be. How rude! This woman had practically raised her!

"Pardon me?" Gran had wonder in her eyes. She knew enough by now to realize this was no ordinary man.

"The Daleks." The Doctor swooped into the room and right over to her, peering down into her eyes. "They invaded this world, dragging Earth across the universe to hide it in a pocket. Remember? Planets in the sky? Daleks in the street? People dying? No?"

She opened her mouth uncertainly, then closed it again, and reached over to a bookshelf. She handed him what looked like a photo album. "I didn't want to keep these, but Jeff insisted on a collection." The Doctor flipped open the book and Amy stepped over, staring down at the album. In the photo album were newspaper clippings and photos of the events. A photo of a sky lit up by various other planets. Several photos of Daleks roaming the streets of Leadworth. Articles about the invasion were also in the album.

Amy grabbed the book from the Doctor. "But...But thats Leadworth.." She swore she could even make out her own street in one of the photos where a Dalek was on. She looked at the dates of the clippings. Just about two years ago, give or take a few months. Technically a good few months before the Doctor had reappeared in her life. "But that is not possible." She shook her head as she handed the album back to Gran. "There were no Daleks here...How is that even possible?"

Gran patted her arm. "Of course there were Daleks, dear, you were right here with the rest of us, don't you remember? You stood right out on main street watching everything bold as anything. She's the brave sort of girl." She added almost proudly.

Amy was staring, her face scrunched up. "That never happened..." She looked over to find the Doctor staring at her in a disconcerting manner. "What?" She asked as he stepped over to her. Gran was watching them with interest. "I'm going to try something." He said quietly. "I need to see..." He gently placed a hand on either side of her head, closing his eyes. She watched him, confused. "Doctor, what are you doing?" She was wanting to pull away when she felt a light pressure and, almost as if there were a presence, in her very own mind! His brow creased in concentration. "Something is missing..." He sounded puzzled. He suddenly pulled his hands away and looked at her worriedly. She rubbed her temple, bewildered.

"I need to..." He was not finishing his sentences and that disturbed Amy. "What? You need to what?" He stared at her a long time before quickly moving around her and rushing out the door. Amy gave Gran an apologetic look before rushing off after him once more. What was going on?!

"What was that, Doctor? What did you do? Where are we going?" He didn't answer as she ran after him. He didn't stop until they reached the TARDIS. He whirled around to face her, causing her to nearly run into him again. She stopped and waited.

"We are not going anywhere. I am. You're staying here." He informed her. Amy felt a lump form in her throat. "But-"

"No. You've got to stay here, Amy. This is something I have to do myself." He turned to head into the TARDIS.

"Doctor, no!" She cried as she tried to join him. He opened the TARDIS and gently held a hand up to stop her. "No, Amy. You can't. Not this time. You have to stay here."

Amy swallowed around the lump as best she could. "But, Doctor!"

"I'm sorry, but you can't. You just...Can't." He was being his usual frustratingly vague self. He disappeared inside and she rushed up to the doors, tugging ineffectually. He hadn't given her a key yet. She couldn't get in. It was less that she worried whether or not he would return to her, and more of when. What if he didn't come back for another two years? Or worse, twelve?

She wanted to scream and pound on the door, begging him to stop. But the engines were starting up and the TARDIS was already fading from her existence. Amy's vision blurred with tears. Within her mind a voice screamed, _Don't leave me_! She forced back the tears. What if he didn't come back? This was her fear. This had always been her fear. People leaving and not returning. It always happened. She couldn't rely on anyone. She placed a hand over her face and closed her eyes, willing her emotions not to over take her.

He was punishing her. Leaving her behind because she'd stolen his ship and crossed the time line. That had to be it. He didn't want to take her with him because he didn't trust her. While she couldn't fully blame him for that, she also knew she had little reason to trust him either after his broken promise. She was in shock. He hadn't even given her time to come to grips with his leaving. Then again, he never did.

She stood there so long, that the cool night air was wrapping around her before she dared move. The moon was rising high in the sky, reflecting off the nearby pond as she walked over to it and stared down. Waiting. Always waiting. This was her life. She would always be waiting for the Doctor.


	4. Then She Fell

He had to be careful. Far more careful than he was currently being. The Doctor stepped back behind a few trees as the Earth rocketed through space. He clung to a tree trunk waiting for the Earth to settle. He heard a few cries from people in nearby houses. He could see a light on in the front room of Gran's house, but there was only one house he was currently interested in.

It took several minutes before the Earth settled. He let go of the tree and hurried carefully through yards until he found the one belonging to Amy Pond. He would be meeting with her in a few more months. He knew he shouldn't risk being here, she might see him, but he had to know. He had to find out. At least he hadn't dared bring her future self along for this trip. That would have been too much.

He crept forward toward the old house until he was at the front door. He used his sonic screwdriver to unlock it and step as quietly as possible inside. The house was dark, save for a dim light emitting from upstairs. He started to slowly step through the house, wary of things like cricket bats. Though he wasn't too worried. The whole Earth moving across the Universe and soon to be invaded would be far more of a distraction than he was, surely.

The stairs made creeping noises as he started up them and he was positive she would hear that in this silence. The house was eerily silent almost as if nobody were home. But Gran had said she not only was home this night, but had joined the others outside to watch the Daleks. So he was expecting her to show up at any time, rushing down the stairs to join her neighbors and friends.

When he made it to the landing, he glanced at the door hiding Prisoner Zero and found it slightly ajar, much to his dismay. This was no night for dealing with that alien criminal as well. He crept past it and to Amy's room. Her door was wide open. He paused in the doorway and his mouth dropped open. Little Amelia Pond sat on the bed. She looked at him and bounced up and down.

"Amelia." He glanced at his watch. "Wrong time...Wrong time? How?" He looked back at her. "_You're _in the wrong time, not me. But how can you be..." He was completely mystified. He stepped over to her. She giggled. He froze. "Prisoner Zero." He guessed.

"You know, Doctor," The little girl began. "You're always meddling where you're not wanted. Have you come to rescue little Amelia Pond?"

The Doctor noticed legs on the other side of the bed, on the floor. He moved around the bed to find Amy sprawled out unconscious. His face darkened as he looked back at the little girl on the bed. An image. A dream. She was only how Amy saw herself in her dreams. Just how often had Prisoner Zero chosen to use the poor child for its own selfish reasons, rendering her unconscious to roam about freely? And hadn't people noticed the fact that sometimes there was a mysterious little girl running around that looked an awfully lot like Amy had when she was young? More than likely the creature didn't dare venture out in this form too often though.

Still, he had no time for this. "I'm not here to rescue anyone. I'm here to find out what happens."

"What happens? What do you mean?" Little Amelia popped off the bed and tilted her head at him as an image of the raggedy Doctor suddenly appeared at her side. The Doctor frowned.

"The world has just moved. The entire world. Shouldn't you go hide in your room like a good little convict before the Daleks come? Because they won't hesitate to destroy you any less quickly than they will do any humans." The Doctor threatened, trying not to let the image of little Amelia throw him too much.

Prisoner Zero as little Amelia looked surprised, but then smiled condescendingly. "And when an image of the Daleks is in her head, she will dream of them. And I will become them. How terrifying for the residents of this town." It seemed to get off on causing others fear and pain. The Doctor could have kicked himself for giving it that idea. "You're quite right. Thank you for that glorious idea. I should hide and let her see them. The stuff of nightmares. Much like her beloved raggedy Doctor who never came back for her. Did you know she still dreams of you? Do you know many of those dreams are nightmares?"

The Doctor flinched.

"Yes." Prisoner Zero used little Amelia's face to give a sad, wide eyed innocent look. "Dreaming of the many reasons she thinks you've abandoned her. In some you've died horrendous deaths and she wakes with a whimper, curling up all pathetic and sad. I guess that part of her still believes in you and lets herself think that is the reason you won't return. Other times you haven't died, but you're angry with her. So very angry. She must not have been a good little girl or the Doctor would have returned to her. She wakes silently from those dreams, but the tears are visible on her cheeks. But the worst ones." Prisoner Zero couldn't stop smiling viciously. "The worst for her are the ones when she needs you but you've forgotten her. She dreams of me in many terrible forms even I have never taken, coming to hurt her, to kill her, to torture her, and she cries out for you, but you're not there. You're never there, Doctor. And in those dreams she wakes up screaming." Prisoner Zero looked down at the image it now was, in the small girl's form. "Little Amelia Pond, always so small inside, waiting for-"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah, Heard this bit, save it for later." The Doctor wasn't going to let Prisoner Zero guilt him any more than it already had. Just seeing the image of little Amelia was hard, but add in all these bad dreams she has had over the years and it tugged at his hearts enough to make it hard to breathe properly. The little girl he'd left behind. She hadn't deserved it. She had needed him. But he couldn't change that now and this criminal was merely trying to hurt him. He had other things to think about. Important things like how to not let Prisoner Zero turn Amy's dreams into his own private playground to terrorize the citizens of this sleepy town. Particularly since they already had enough on their plate this night.

The image of Amelia and the raggedy Doctor vanished and Amy started to stir. The Doctor realized all too quickly that he had to hide. He rushed out of the room and into a spare room, creeping behind a door and listening while he tried to decide how to handle this new little problem. Assuming he all along had reacted this way, then he knew he must have stopped it. Otherwise Prisoner Zero would have held this little town in terror for at least a few months until his return. And he knew that never happened. It wasn't supposed to happen. It wouldn't have happened had he come back in five minutes. Everything always came down to his abandoning little Amelia.

He heard movement as a phone rang. He heard her pick up.

"What Jeff? What are you on about, worlds in the sky?" There was the sound of footsteps and then a loud gasp. Then running feet. Amy hurried down the stairs and flew out the front door. She more than likely assumed she'd just fallen asleep on the floor, but was obviously now struck with the situation everyone was dealing with. Having moved across the stars. But the Doctor couldn't help wondering just how many other days and nights in the past eleven plus years had she assumed she was just chronically tired? Woken up in strange places and been used by Prisoner Zero? A small part of the Doctor hated him, but he couldn't afford to waste hate on such an insignificant creature.

He didn't and couldn't stop her from going downstairs. He knew Amy would have to see the Daleks because Gran remembered her doing so. He could have stopped it, but that would be crossing the timeline in visible ways and changing things in ways he shouldn't. So he would have to wait. And wait he did. But at least now he understood. He knew why Amy didn't remember the Daleks. It was because of him. He would erase them from her mind. He couldn't afford not to. If he didn't then Prisoner Zero would use her nightmares of the Daleks to terrorize the entire town and possibly do actual damage. And he would have to erase this visit from her mind as well. He had to remain hidden for now because of the Daleks, but they would be gone soon enough, he knew, thanks to his last incarnation and his friends. In the meantime, all he could do was wait.

**_Meanwhile..._**

The current Amy still stared down at the tranquil duck pond. Where had the Doctor gone this time? Why was he so insistent on not taking her with him? Would he really return? She may as well get on with her life. Spend some time with Rory and get back to work because who knew when he would be back. She'd made the Doctor angry and annoyed by stealing his ship and picking up little Amelia so maybe he wouldn't even want to come back.

She peered down at her reflection in the water. "Its all your fault." She frowned down at herself. She lifted a foot up and stuck it into her reflection in the water, breaking the surface. It rippled over the top and suddenly she found herself slipping. "Aah!" She fell forward with a splash, arms splayed out awkwardly. She fell into the little pond and sank beneath the surface. She knew how to swim well enough and the little pond couldn't have possibly been too deep.

Except...Except that as she tried to re-surface, she found she couldn't. Her hands reached up toward the light above her, to try to break through the surface of the water, but the water felt solid and refused to let her. It was as if she were beating her fists against the insides of a water bed. It was squishy and cold and hard, but solid and impossible to break through.

She made a muffled sound and watched the bubbles trail up through blurred eye sight. The bubbles, too, were unable to break the surface. They skidded along underneath the very edge of the surface of the pond without escaping. Panic started to set in. Amy felt her way around each and every edge of the duck pond, completely confused and upset. How could she not get out?! It wasn't possible to drown when she knew how to swim and air was only inches away!

She beat uselessly on the water, trying desperately to find a way out. She was quickly running out of air and growing weak. Where was the Doctor now, when she needed him possibly more than she ever had before? Of course, he was off having his own adventures and probably had forgotten about her. He wouldn't come back. He would never know she died here in this pond that he had suspected wasn't a regular old duck pond all along. He'd been right. Amy couldn't guess what it might be, but she could see it would be her death.

She didn't have time to contemplate the potentials behind just what the so-called duck pond might actually be.

Her lungs were burning. Her body functions were slowing and shutting down. Her brain felt in a fog. All she could think now was how badly she needed to breathe. Air was all she could focus on and ways to get it. She tried to suck in a couple of the air bubbles that were floating near the surface, but only managed to make herself choke, coughing water into her lungs. Her chest and sides were spasming painfully. Her body heaved as her oxygen starved cells dragged every bit of oxygen it could muster from her lungs to let her heart continue beating a few more precious seconds. She twisted in agony, reaching up, praying someone could break through and grab her hand. But no one knew where she was. No one would come.

This was her end, she knew it. She felt it. She was dying and there was nothing she could do about it. She was getting too weak to fight it anymore. She couldn't keep swimming. She felt her body falling. She fell away from the needed surface. Deeper and deeper down into the dark, murky depths of the endless pond. Amy Pond stopped fighting just as her mind began to shut down and everything went black.


	5. Forgetting

**Thank you for all the reviews! You guys help inspire me to keep writing.  
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The Doctor gripped the door tightly in his hands. It swung back and forth wildly. The Earth was moving again. This time it moved to nestle safely back into place. He glanced toward the window grimly. Let his former self and friends worry about such matters, he needed to fix Amy. While he'd been waiting things out, he formed a plan. He would continue to hide out in one of the spare rooms until well after she returned. He would wait until she was sleeping and then he would carefully erase her memories of the Daleks as well as put a perception filter in her own mind when it came to news articles and people talking of them. The filter would wear off in a few months time, enough for it to fade into the background of peoples' daily activities and stories in Amy's mind.

People in small towns like this tended to want to get back to business as usual, and as quickly as possible. And if he did all of this while she was asleep, he wouldn't have to hide away even more of her memories, like of him being here now. The brain was a fragile thing, after all. He couldn't remember the last time he'd wiped any single person's mind this many times. He didn't care to tamper with her brain much more. He didn't know the full consequences of such a thing, but he knew it wasn't safe. It was one thing to wipe the same memory over and over again or to take a big swipe at memory as a whole at one time. It was quite another to attack the brain over and over again for various memory sources. He wasn't feeling entirely comfortable with it, but it had to be done.

The Earth settled into place and the Doctor hung back, slipping carefully out of sight when a little while later he heard a door and voices. The voices were excited and heading up the stairs.

"Do you think we really moved?" _Rory_. He sounded incredulous. Amy giggled and the sounds of rustling clothes could be heard as they entered her bedroom, a room away from where the Doctor was.

"Planets were in the sky, weird metal pepper-pot aliens were threatening us, Rory. Get a grip. It was all fake. Someone must have dropped some acid in the drinking water." The Doctor raised an eyebrow. That was completely unlike the Amy he knew. She would never be so cynical. Then again, this was after she'd grown up and before he came back for her. She probably explained away all mysterious things as being perfectly logical. Blast those psychiatrists for filling her head with all their crazy logical..._Logic_! They'd made her think he wasn't real. They'd made her do something far worse than that. They'd made her grow up.

The sounds of lips smacking together and rising heated passion had the Doctor clutching both hands over his ears. He winced. This wasn't cool. He shouldn't be here. He couldn't be listening to this. He kept picturing Amy as little Amelia. A sweet, innocent little girl who loved to play with dolls and make cartoons. Not a sexy young woman who wished to get it on with her boyfriend. It was hard to differentiate the two versions of the girl he knew. He glared up over at the wall as if pained by the sounds coming from the next room. After a light moan sounded, he couldn't take another minute of it.

In the next moment he left his hiding place and boldly burst into Amy's bedroom.

And immediately regretted it.

Rory and Amy were sprawled across the bed, half clothed, with Amy on top of Rory and in a heated moment of bliss that made the Time Lord's cheeks dust a slight shade of pink. "Sorry!" He announced, but didn't make a move to leave.

Rory quickly sat up and stared, confused. Amy jumped up, pulling her shirt back into place and advanced upon the intruder as if she'd had a plan for how to deal with just such a thing well before he ever appeared. "You!" She reached out, ready to give the Doctor a good slap. "What are you doing here?" While she likely recognized him, she refused to acknowledge it.

The Doctor stepped back, out of her reach. She was looking wild eyed as she came at him. He held up his hands defensively. "I realize the timing isn't best. I apologize for interrupting you're...Yes, well. You're still going to need me to do what I need to do to you later." That hadn't come out quite as well as he'd hoped. It earned him a sharp, daring glare from Amy and a wide-eyed look from Rory who was barely pulling himself up and tugging his pants back on. "Truly, sorry. Still. I didn't think you'd want to continue...Well not while I'm here. Certainly not. Amy," He rubbed his hands together lightly. "We need to talk."

She laughed bitterly. "No, we really don't. You need to leave before I need to beat you unconscious." She looked about, and the Doctor felt certain she was aching to use her painful cricket bat on him.

"Now, Amy, you know who I am. And, surely you know that I'm-" She went behind the door and produced the dreaded bat. "Now, Now, Amy, you don't wanna do that, you-" She was rapidly approaching him again as he stepped back, walking backwards even faster. She was not listening and not only was she not listening, she was about to beat him. He had a feeling by the ferocity in her step, that she was going to do more than give him one whack on the head. She was going to pummel him good. Probably half from shock of him being here and half out of anger from him being late.

"Maybe this wasn't a good time..." He thought quickly. It might be best to use the TARDIS to come back a night or two later when things have settled and she was hopefully asleep. This wasn't working out too well.

"You come breaking and entering into my house in the middle of the night. No. It isn't a good time!" She swung her cricket bat at him. He ducked and ran downstairs quickly, exiting the house as thought he running from a fire. So much for logic and reason. There was simply no reasoning with Amy when she was in possession of a cricket bat!

He could hear feet thundering after him so he didn't stop. He kept on and raced to the TARDIS which was parked a house away. He quickly slipped inside. He started her up and vanished before Amy could even see the blue box she would surely recognize. She already knew it though. She heard the sound and recognized it. He would have to wipe her memory not only of the Daleks but of the events of this night as well. He set the TARDIS to two nights ahead, just to be on the safe side. He couldn't afford more than that because she might start having Dalek dreams and then where would he be.

He chose his coordinates carefully, setting the TARDIS down at four in the morning, two days later, and several houses away. The last thing he needed was to wake her by letting her hear the TARDIS rumbling about. This time things went a lot better. For several reasons. One, Rory was here but passed out cold beside her and was clearly a heavy sleeper since he hadn't woken. Not even when the Doctor accidentally hit the wall with his sonic. Two, Amy fell asleep with headphones on so she didn't hear him creeping up the stairs. He'd been a bit worried about that happening. Three, Prisoner Zero wasn't out and about. And four, she fell asleep on her back, her head easily accessible. The two of them were laying side by side, thankfully in pajamas, not in their birthday suits.

He stepped in and moved over to the bed. He peered down at Amy's pale face, worry lines etched across her delicate forehead. He didn't stop to contemplate just what she was worrying about in her sleep. He knew going down that road would only make him feel more guilt which wasn't very productive at this point. He watched her sleeping for several moments, enjoying the peacefulness of it. She looked so vulnerable laying there. He hated leaving her to Prisoner Zero. But he knew would come soon enough to help her. He reached out with gentle hands and cupped her face. He closed his eyes and delved deep into her mind.

Carefully he avoided her delicate memories as he was seeking out the night the Daleks had come. He found the memories fairly close to the surface and quickly wiped them completely from her mind. Though technically he was merely hiding them from her in places she could never reach herself.

He then set about finding the other memory he needed to erase. Himself busting into the room with her and Rory doing what...They were doing. He found it also fairly fresh in her mind. It was obviously weighing heavily on her thoughts and whether he wanted to or not, he was forced to face the fact that he was the cause of the worry he saw on her face. She needn't worry any longer. He wiped the memory and all subsequent thoughts of him due to that memory, from her mind. He then let go of her. Her face fell into a calmer expression, though not a completely peaceful one.

He moved over to Rory. He gently tilted the nurse's head since he was laying on his side, and he placed his hands on either side of Rory's head. He removed all thoughts of the Doctor's visit from his mind while trying to be polite by avoiding other thoughts and memories. Still, he saw a few, including jealousy of the Doctor himself. He had to do this though, it was the safest way to handle this Dalek problem and he couldn't let them keep the memories of him or it would be crossing his own personal time line and changing things again.

When he finished, he stepped back and watched the two a moment. Cute couple. Though Rory wasn't exactly the good looking one, he did seem to have more depth to him than Jeff did. At least he hadn't caught him looking at porn.

Satisfied that all was well for now, the Doctor left. It was time to return to Amy.


	6. Timey Wimey

A sharp stabbing pain pounded away at her forehead. It was the first thing she became aware of as she woke. The next thing was her chest. It burned. As she dragged in a deep breath she coughed weakly, her chest rising and falling, each breath feeling like needles lined her lungs. Amy Pond forced her eyes open. Bright sunlight met her along with a shadow hanging over her face. A blurred face hung over hers.

She squinted up at it. "Doctor?" She rasped, coughing some more. Fingers were in her hair, smoothing it comfortingly. He was speaking to her, trying to tell her something, but her ears weren't working just yet. She closed her eyes once more. She lay there for quite a while, coughing and coping with the severe pain and stress her body had been under. He waited patiently. She felt wetness all around her head and body, so she was laying in a puddle. The pain started to subside after several deeper breaths. Her head still hurt, but her lungs were much clearer and the pain less sharp.

Finally she opened her eyes again and blinked away the blurriness to find the Doctor hovering over her, watching her with a deeply troubled look. As her eyes came open, his fingers left her hair. She waited a few more minutes before she was able to speak. "What happened?" Her voice came out squeaky and she had to cough a few more times to try again before it was more clear. "What happened?"

The Doctor's eyes never seemed to leave her face except to check her stats, her breathing and pulse and to make sure nothing was broken. "You drowned." He stated calmly. Yet, there was a hint of an edge to his voice, as though he were restraining his emotions.

She almost laughed, but feared another coughing fit. "Drowned? I can't have drowned, I'm talking to you, aren't I? I'm not dead."

"No, but you were." That made Amy's heart speed up. "When I found you, you were unconscious, you weren't breathing, and your heart had stopped. Your lungs were flooded with water. You were technically dead for a full minute before I could revive you, Amy. So yes, drowned."

She tried to sit up. He placed a restricting hand on her sternum, pressing her firmly, but gently back down. "Rest. You need to regain your strength, Amy."

The memories came swarming back. She'd fallen into the duck pond. But it was no ordinary duck pond, just as the Doctor suspected! "But the pond! What is it?" She blinked up at him. He'd saved her life. He must have gotten back in the nick of time. Or had he looked ahead and seen what had become of her and came back to save her from that fate? She turned her head to the side and could only see a white desert looking plateau. She was in the sand. In a desert. There was nothing like this in Leadworth! Had the Doctor moved her? Taken here away in the TARDIS? "Where am I...?" Her voice sounded miles away even to herself.

The Doctor didn't answer. She turned back to him. He was looking down at her with the same intense sort of scrutinizing look he gave when he was trying to figure something out. She recognized the look well enough. "Doctor?" She questioned. Would the pounding in her head ever stop?

"You're too soon." He murmured. "How did you get here?" When Amy was able to study the Doctor in a bit more detail, she noticed his hair was slightly longer than it had been earlier in the day. As if he needed a trim. Not only that, but he wore a darker jacket than she remembered.

"The pond. I fell. It...I couldn't get out." She wondered if she was making any sense. "Why do you look different." She reached up and touched her forehead, rubbing. Her head was aching and she was very confused.

"Because you're too soon. You shouldn't be here." The Doctor reached down and slid an arm around her, helping her ease into a sitting position. He held his arm there to support her. "I need to get you home."

Amy had, had enough. She shook her head, but that only made her dizzy and she clutched her head, giving a slight whimper. The Doctor's arm tightened more supportively around her as he waited for her pain to lessen. But the pain wasn't going to stop her from speaking her mind. "No. I don't know where we are or how we got here, but you're not leaving me home again! You can't! I won't let you!"

The Doctor took his time, making sure she was able to sit up on her own and then let go of her, sitting back on his legs as he watched her. She didn't like how he kept looking at her so strangely. "Amy, I _am_ sorry. But I'm not the Doctor you know. You need to go back. This is the future. Your future, and you can't be here."

"What do you mean you're not the Doctor I know! You're the Doctor!" Other than his jacket and hair being slightly different, he didn't look any different to her than usual. She couldn't understand what he meant.

"Amy, listen to me. This isn't your time. We're time travelers, remember? But I'm from your respective future, and you are my past. You need to go home. You mentioned the pond. The duck pond." He looked thoughtful for a moment. "Ah, that. I've lived it already. You haven't. Yes, well you need to go back." He wasn't really helping her understand anything.

"But something is wrong with the pond! How did I end up out here in the desert and with the wrong you then?" Amy leaned back on her palms. Her head was still a bit sore, and breathing was slightly painful, but she felt better physically. And she was alive! That part was astonishing to her. She'd been positive she was dead. Then again, apparently she _did _die! It was just that the Doctor was here to bring her back to life. She didn't particularly care which him he was, he was still the Doctor to her.

"The pond is a filling, sort of like a gorge, in space and time, caused by all of that excess energy you and I used to close all the cracks. It was already in place long before I ever actually met you, because we've traveled into the past together as well." The Doctor explained as best he could, careful to leave out details she wasn't supposed to have yet. He watched her.

"Wait. Then how did I end up in the desert? And where am I here if you're a future you? Then aren't I a future me?" She asked, unsure of any of this, but accepting it none-the-less. She glanced around, looking for herself. An odd concept, but one Amy didn't have a problem with after all she'd already seen and done.

The Doctor sighed. "The filling is the opposite of the cracks. Instead of pressing itself together, its time and space trying to pull itself apart by condensing worlds together that do not belong. Imagine if you wanted to pull two pieces of pie apart in a pie pan, you might have to wiggle it around a bit, smashing bits of the rest of the pie together. Time and space is smashing worlds together in the same way. This is the desert of Juforal Eight. This is an alien world, and in the future for you. And no, I'm not going to tell you where you are in your future, that would be cheating now wouldn't it."

Amy frowned. "Yeah, I get that, but how do we fix it? And where am I? Aren't I with you? I mean, the future me? Did you leave me in Leadworth again?" She knew he wouldn't answer these questions, but she in no way could ignore the glaring fact that she didn't see her future self around. And more importantly her future self didn't appear to be with the Doctor.

The Doctor got up and offered her a hand. She took it and he helped pull her to her feet. He held her hand a moment longer to make sure she was fully on her feet. He offered the first hint of a smile. "Here you are, asking questions, refusing to _not_ know the answers, as always." He sounded happy about that somehow. Her Doctor wouldn't have been, he would have been annoyed and told her to shut up. Had the Doctor grown softer in time? She doubted she would ever even find out how far into the future this was.

"I won't tell you your future so stop asking. And," He reached over and poked her arm. That was more like him. "_You_ will have to sort this one out on your own, Amelia Pond. I can't help you. Well, aside from saving your life. Now come on." He reached over and took her hand again, pulling her in the direction of the only visible thing on the endless sands. The TARDIS a bit away.

"What are you doing here then? Did you know I would be here?" Amy let him pull her along and didn't argue only for the fact she was still a bit too weak to fight him this time.

"No. I'm not here for you." The way he said it kind of stung her. As though he hadn't cared that he found her here. That saving her life was just an afterthought. Still, he couldn't have been completely calm about it. Finding her body out here in the middle of a desert like this. She figured he must have known she wasn't her future self because of the duck pond, and maybe she looked different. She wanted to ask, but too much was happening already and she doubted he would tell her anyway.

She was still soaking wet and shivering quite a bit by the time they entered the TARDIS. He dropped her hand and ran out of the main room for a moment. He returned with a body sized towel and walked over. He draped it carefully over her shoulders and around her before letting go. Then he headed over to the console. "Press that button there." He pointed to one across from him as he turned the hot and cold dials. She clutched at the towel around herself and moved over the the button and pressed. "Doctor?" He looked up at her. "Can you at least tell me...When you left me in Leadworth again and I fell in the pond, did you come back for me?"

He looked as if he might hesitate to answer that, so she was surprised when he actually did. "Yes. I come back for you. I haven't gone far and I fully intend to return to you. I always do." He added this last part softly before messing more with the controls.

"But you don't always come back for me in time..." He didn't respond, but his body stiffened at that, Amy noticed. She sank down onto a plush seat, feeling weak and tired. It had been a long day. She blinked a few times until her eyes became too heavy for her to hold open. Soon sleep claimed her.

The next thing she knew, she felt a gentle, but persistent nudging of her shoulder. She had to work to get her eyes opened. She looked up at the Doctor. She was slumped back in the chair. "Time to go." He quickly grabbed her hand and pulled her to her feet.

Amy yawned. "Can't I have a nap? This is a time machine, can't you just fly about for a couple of hours?" She said grumpily.

He was looking at her a bit coolly now, she noticed. "As I told you, I'm not here for you. I've saved your life and given you a lift, that is the best I can do. Others are depending on me right now. By the way, you shouldn't tell me about _me_ finding you. Well, the me you know. The whole timey wimey thing can get complicated if you do." He tugged her over to the door. "There you are. Good luck, Amy Pond." He opened the door and she peered out. She saw the dreaded pond a little ways away and grimaced. "Couldn't you have taken me home?"

"Ah, home isn't that far, and you've things to do."

She clutched the towel around herself and started to step out of the TARDIS. "Okay, see you then, Doctor." He suddenly grabbed her lightly by the arms, turning her to face him. The troubled look was back on his face.

"Amy," He paused as she watched him curiously. He lowered his voice to such a soft, gentle tone that it was frightening to Amy. The Doctor was loud and obnoxious, he didn't sugar coat things. At least not the Doctor she knew. "Things are going to get bad. _Very_ bad. And when they do, you're going to need to do something hard." He closed his eyes a moment, resting his forehead against hers. Okay, now she was completely baffled, not to mention worried. He sighed heavily. It seemed like he was struggling with something. Finally, he pulled his head away from hers and continued. "You're going to have to trust me more than you have ever done before." He leaned forward, pressing a tender kiss to her forehead. "Good luck."

With that, he lightly nudged her out the door, closing it behind her. It was night again, not day like it had been in the desert. She stood there in the moonlight a few moments as the engines sounded and the TARDIS faded. She'd just survived a near drowning, yet all she could think was...What had he meant by that?

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**Reviews are loved! **


	7. Killing Amy Again

Hello all! Thank you so much for the wonderful reviews! I always appreciate reviews. I'm so sorry for the delay on this chapter. I know it is hard to wait. I had the chapter almost finished, then stumbled into some writer's block so it was delayed. I apologize! I hope you are still enjoying this story. Happy reading and writing! Please review!

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The Doctor knew he was late. When he first left Amy it was early evening, with the sun still a nice warm golden glow above the horizon. But now it was dark, the moon high in the sky and the stars shining brightly. Would he ever stop disappointing an already distrustful Amy? He would keep trying to earn her trust, it was all he could do at this point. He had shaped this girl's life with his mistakes and he knew he would just have to continue to face the consequences of that.

He parked the TARDIS in her backyard and burst into her house. She wasn't home. It was getting late, he couldn't imagine why she wouldn't be back home yet.

He left her house and headed out onto the street in search of her. He started walking and saw a lone figure in the distance. Judging by the person's gait, long hair, and frame size, he decided it was a female. As the person got closer, he saw a tint of red in the pale moonlight. _Amy. _

He smiled brightly and called out to her. "Amy! I resolved the Dalek issue. I understand now why you don't remember, and its all perfectly okay. You don't remember because of me, but thats another story." He approached her, rubbing his hands together enthusiastically. When he could finally see her clearly, his smile slipped. She was walking a bit slowly and looked far too pale for his peace of mind. She was wrapped in a towel and staring at him in surprise.

"Doctor?" It wasn't an unfamiliar reaction. Even though she knew he would return, she still hadn't expected it to be so soon. Maybe in a few months or a year or two at best. Amy didn't have to ask about not remembering the Daleks, she was able to gather by what he said that for some reason he must have wiped those memories from her as well. She didn't like the idea of it at all, but there wasn't much she could do about it. And there were other things on her mind just now.

He stopped in front of her, his eyes traveling over her, then back up to her eyes with his usual intensity. "You're wet." He observed. "You're pale, and wet, and wearing a towel."

"Yeah!" Amy couldn't help herself. "I'm also standing in the middle of the road and wearing converse. Care to make any other 'amazing' observations, Doctor?" She was still rather grumpy.

He wasn't put off by her attitude. "You decided to go for a swim." He guessed. "You shouldn't go swimming. The cool temperature when the sun is down this time of year weakens your immune system. Besides, this is hardly time for a swim, we have places to go, times to be in that aren't this one." _Clueless. Absolutely ever clueless._

She rolled her eyes. "Oh, yes. I went swimming. I went swimming with my clothes on. I went swimming with my clothes on in the middle of the night. That's exactly what happened." She held the towel around herself and used her other hand to rub her head. There was still a dull ache.

"Oh." Realization kicked in right about then as the Doctor looked her over once more. "Did I miss something?"

_If only he knew._ "You could say that. I fell. Into another world. I drowned. I _died_. I was brought back to life. I got a lift home and here I am."

He stared. She stared. It was one hell of a staring contest.

"But you can't have gotten a lift home from another planet." Leave it to the Doctor to not question the most important part of that whole ordeal for Amy. _The dying part! _

"But I did do!" She shook her head. "Ugh." It was no use with him. Trying to garner sympathy from the Doctor was like trying to swim in that horrible pond. Neither worked out well. She wouldn't mention his future self, but not because the future Doctor warned her not to. She decided not to because she liked having a secret about him that even he didn't know. "Never mind about that, we've got bigger problems. Like the pond."

That got his attention. He let the whole how did she get back from another world thing slide since there were other things going on. "The duck pond? What about it?"

"Its evil." She took his hand and tugged him toward the pond. "It sucks you down into another world and it doesn't let anyone back out!" She pulled him down the street and over to the pond.

"Really." The Doctor was definitely intrigued by this. He let go of her hand and bent down. He grabbed a flower off a nearby bush and gently submerged the end of it in the pond. He pulled and it came right out. He pushed the entire flower down under the surface, and carefully used a leaf to scoop it out. He had no problems getting it out. He dared poke a finger into the water and it too, came out with no problem. He let his entire hand hit the water and dipped it down, then back up again with no troubles. He stood up and slipped a leg in, again having no problem getting back out. He didn't seem to care that his leg was entirely soaked now. He suddenly was climbing over into the pond.

"Doctor! Don't!" Amy's fearful voice cried. She rushed forward but he was already in, and standing with water up just past his knees. He wasn't sinking, and he wasn't having trouble getting out.

"Hmm. Shallow. Only a couple of feet deep. And," He climbed out beside Amy. "I'm not trapped nor am I in another world. So." He looked at her, puzzled. "The ducks must sense something is wrong with the pond and stay away. But the pond is nothing more than an ordinary duck pond to everyone. Everyone, but _you_." It almost sounded like an accusation. "Somehow it is about you. It only wants you." That sent chills down Amy's spine. "So, for you, its an entrance into another world. It must be another crack in space and time, except that its more of a gap-"

"Wrong." Amy gloated. A disturbed look fell over the Doctor's features as she continued. "Its not a crack or a gap. Its a filling. The opposite of the cracks. We caused it when we closed all the cracks. This is like, the left over energy or something."

"Actually..." He held up a finger. She could easily see he was looking for a way to disagree, but after a long pause he gave in. "Well, actually, that makes a lot of sense. Yeah." The Doctor didn't look entirely happy about the fact she seemed to know things that he didn't. "But how would you know that?"

"A little birdy told me. A little birdy with a big mouth." She smirked. Incredulous would be a good word to describe the look on his face now. The Doctor was gaping at her.

"Right then." He clapped his hands together. "First thing is first, we need a plan. And by a plan, I mean a way to let the energy that is the filling, out and heal this duck pond so that the ducks can enjoy it again, not to mention saving all of humanity because a filling like this may start out just wanting you, but now that the cracks are healed, it is gathering energy and can only grow stronger and consume. As long as it is here, it is draining time and space around it. Which would explain a few other things, but never mind about that." Like the fact that he would have sworn that he had come back in time for her, but perhaps time was effected here because of the pond. "We need to heal this pond." He repeated.

"Okay. How do we do that?" Amy moved to stand beside him, peering down into the pond. It was hard to believe something that looked so calm could be so dangerous.

"I'll do...Stuff!" He spun on his heels and started stalking off. Amy turned and followed him. "Stuff? You have no idea what you're doing, do you?" He didn't answer, which was answer enough for Amy.

They ended up in her backyard, near the TARDIS. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started scanning all over her backyard.

"What are you doing, Doctor?" She watched him curiously.

"Trying to find...Ah there we are!" His sonic was bleeping noisily at one particular section of her yard, but all she could see there was air and wide open space.

"What is it?"

"Here. This is the spot where it all started." He poked at an invisible spot in the air. "This." He looked back at her. "Is where you created the rip in the fabric of everything. This is where you came back for little Amelia."

Amy felt enormous guilt, but she wasn't about to grovel for more forgiveness. They both knew she'd been wrong and there was nothing more to say about it. "Well, but what can we do about it?" She asked, wide eyed.

The Doctor was silent for several moments as he patted the air and played with his sonic. He was peering at the sonic closely, and then started to pace in front of the invisible spot. "We reverted the cracks so that they would close. The energy we produced to do that, created the pond, well the filling that is now the pond." He was doing his thinking-out-loud thing, so Amy stayed quiet, watching him rant on. "Energy. Filling. The filling _is_ energy. Pond. Energy. Another world. Energy! If the excess energy was enough to punch a hole into another world, then it needs to be drained. Not the pond, but the energy itself. And the only way to drain excess energy caused by closing off cracks in time and space is to..." He suddenly whirled around and stared sideways at Amy.

The look alone was enough to make her shift uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Is to what?" She asked quickly, impatient to find out just what it was they would have to do to fix this. All she wanted was a nice warm bath and a good, long nap.

He was rubbing his fingers together, a nervous little habit as far as Amy could tell, which didn't make her feel reassured. He stepped up to her and was peering into her eyes. "Is to send you out of existence."

It took Amy a solid ten seconds to conjure up any sort of response for that. Her mouth fell open and she was positive she must have looked at the Doctor as though he were truly as mad as he ever claimed to be. "But, out of existence. That's like me dying again, yeah? _Why_?"

"You won't be in existence, so yes, technically you will be dead." He turned away from her and pointed to the invisible spot again. "You see, we need to drain the energy, and we need to take it somewhere it can safely be expelled. I know a place, but the draining part is tricky. The energy is drawn to you, so with the proper motivation, it will follow you through space and time. Which is why we need to send you to..." He briefly bit his lip as he turned around and looked back at her. "The Void. Which is the nothingness between the everythingness." Was everythingness even a word? No way, but it didn't matter.

"You'll come with me." It was a question wrapped in fear.

"I can't. No. You have to go alone. I'll need to stay here to make sure the energy follows you and to pull you back." The Doctor was running into the TARDIS now. Amy trailed after him very slowly, and peeked inside, but didn't enter.

"You want to send me into nothingness all alone? Well, at least there won't be any bad aliens there." She said lightly even though she felt like she might be falling to pieces. Could someone go out of existence and still manage to _exist_? The idea made her head pound all over again. She massaged her forehead.

The Doctor came back out carrying some odd little black cone shaped devices and placed them in a circle. They were attached to long black cords that ran back into the TARDIS. "Well. Sometimes there are bad aliens there. But you shouldn't run into any...I think." He poked and prodded the cones, using his sonic on each of them.

"Oh, that makes me feel _so_ much better. Thanks for that." She sighed, leaning heavily against the TARDIS.

"Hang on." He ran out of her backyard and disappeared for several minutes before returning. "I placed one floating atop the pond too." He told Amy as he ran back into the yard. She was still stood by the TARDIS doors, leaning back against them. "They help conduct fluent current and will encourage the energy to jump through it. That way the energy will be able to find you easily as it will have a direct link to you."

"If its nothingness, how will I see where I am and find my way back?" She pictured pitch blackness.

"Oh, don't worry about that. You should be more concerned about there not being any air." He walked over and held out a small face mask. "This should stabilize your breathing long enough for this to work. It recycles your own air and purifies it for a good ten minutes."

She took the mask and glared at him. "Are you saying I will only be there ten minutes?"

"Hopefully no more than two. Yes. No. Yes. Two minutes or you might very well go insane. The void is truly nothingness. Nothing at all can play games with your mind. Or so I'm told."

"You mean...You've never been there?" This was just getting better and better.

"Well. No. But we haven't a choice. If you don't do this Amy, the energy that is filling that pond, will continue to grow stronger until it isn't just coming after you anymore. It will consume everything that it comes into contact with."

"Can't we just avoid it? You know, not go near the pond? Its been there my whole life and never caused any problems before." Amy was playing with the oxygen mask now, but she wasn't putting it on and she sure wasn't moving away from the TARDIS.

"No." He sighed and stepped before her, pleading with his eyes. "Amy, that energy may have been around for a long while, but now that we've healed the cracks, the stored up energy is like a nuclear reaction waiting to happen. Right now it may just be an entrance into another world, but soon it will be a vacuum, letting everything from this world fall into it and swallow it up. It will become all consuming, like a black hole. Do you really think everything in the existence of this planet can survive that? It can't. It just can't. It will eat the Earth unless you do this! I'd do it for you, but the energy doesn't want me, it won't follow me even if we give it a direct link to. It has to be you."

Amy stared at him. Even though he was speaking harshly to her, she could see it. The fear, the pain, the worry, the guilt. He had more on his back than anyone should. She knew the Doctor wouldn't do anything to put her in danger unless there were no other options. "Okay." She resigned herself to it.

"Thank you." He said quietly.

"I mean, what can be so bad. Its nothingness, so its just...Nothing." She was searching for reassurances. She wasn't about to get any.

He bent down to peer directly into her eyes. "Being in the Void means you won't see, hear, feel or smell anything. You can still think, and feel your own body, but that is all. You will have virtually nothing else. Nothing to hold onto, nothing to stand on, nothing to keep you floating, nothing at all. Space doesn't exist there. Time ceases to exist there. What might be one moment for you here, can seem, quite literally, like an eternity in the Void. You will be alone. Cut off from every contact. You're human. You've never been exposed to such a thing before and it isn't something your body can withstand for long. Even people who have been a part of deprivation experiments have never come close to this sort of deprivation. There has always been something to feel, water, or ground, air, light, warmth, cold. But you will have nothing. And you will need to use your mind to keep yourself sane."

He wasn't grabbing her and pulling her over. He wasn't making her. This was serious and it was something she would have to decide to do. As much as he wanted to save the world, he couldn't force her to put herself in the situation. He would only ask and beg and hope. And she knew it. She would have to do this. It sounded bad even though she had no clue what was to happen.

"How will I get back?" She tried to keep the trembling in her voice down to a minimum. The Doctor was polite enough not to point it out though he knew she was scared. Who the hell wouldn't be?

"I'll get you back. Once the energy has followed you into the Void, I will pull you back. I'm using my transmitters to harness energy from the TARDIS in order to open a door to the Void. Once the energy follows you into the Void it will dissipate."

"But then how will you get me back? I get that the energy, filling, pond, or whatever you call it, will be harmless in the Void, but what will stop it coming after me while I'm in the Void and how will I get out?"

"Well." He paused. "That's the thing. It will follow you into the Void and it _will _come after you. So. We have to be quick about things. Once it goes through, I have to throw a rope in for you to grab onto and I will be here to pull you back out once I feel you grab it."

"So basically," Amy was trying not to panic. "I have to find the rope before the energy finds me...?"

"Exactly."

"Any more surprises, Doctor?" Her heart was racing. She placed a hand over her chest, trying to calm it down by taking slow deep breaths. She'd barely recovered from her last death and now she was about to leap into another, in a matter of speaking.

"No. Well. Probably not." The Doctor gestured toward the center of the cones.

She hesitated big time. "What if I can't find the rope? What if you throw it in the wrong direction in the Void? You always say you'll come back for me, but you don't always do. Not in the right time. What if you're late?" She was really trying hard not to get too upset, but her emotions had been pushed to the limits already.

"There is nothing else I can do!" He sounded frustrated and it came out a bit angrily. "Amy, we have no choice. Its this or let the Earth get eaten! Which would you like?" She cringed at his rough tone, shrinking back against the TARDIS door, seeking comfort from the inanimate object rather than the man who expected her to place her life into his hands quite literally.

She closed her eyes briefly, an image of the Doctor flashing before her. But the one from the desert. The one who knew her future. He'd been softer, more of a comfort to her. He had said she would have to do something hard. To trust him. She just wasn't sure she could do it. She opened her eyes and looked at him. "If the energy finds me in the Void, will it just take me back to that desert again?" She asked hopefully.

The Doctor wasn't looking at her. He was busying himself with the cords leading to the cones, but it felt like he was avoiding eye contact. "No. Once it has moved it won't just be an entrance into another world. It will consume and...And it may take you to another world or it may simply eat you from existence."

If she could have, she would have burst into tears. The effort alone would be too much. She needed to reserve what little energy she had left for what she was about to do. She merely watched him quietly for a few minutes. "Okay. I'll do it." She wanted to make him proud, and she certainly couldn't take being the cause of anyone being hurt or killed by the energy.

He walked back over to her and captured her hand between his. At first, she thought it was a tender moment of comforting, but then she felt something cool and sticky against her wrist as he released her hand. She turned it over and saw a small gray microbe looking thing. "Whats this?"

"It is just a signal directly linking you to the energy. It helps the energy find you and encourages it to follow you. It will activate once you're on your way into the Void, and that is when we need to be quick." He turned away and moved over to his circle, then looked back at her. "Ready?" He waited.

"No." But she forced herself forward. It was now or never. She laid her towel over the swing set and stepped over to the circle. "What do I do?"

"Okay, I'm about to activate it. When I do, you step through. And do all you can to not think of where you are, think of home, take yourself away mentally, Amy. This is important."

"Okay." She said with a firm nod, looking far more brave than she felt. Her steps were shaky, her hands as well. She placed the oxygen mask over her mouth and nose and waited. A clicking sound came from whatever the Doctor was doing and then what sounded like a loud swooshing noise. A bright light filled the space between the cones and a rough breeze blew from it. Amy looked back at the Doctor once more. He was standing, watching her with an unreadable look. She took a deep breath and stepped into the light.


	8. The Void

The light, it turned out, wasn't the Void. In fact, it was merely the door leading into the Void. If she were to stop and think about it, the doorway felt like a warm blast, as if standing outside in a blizzard when someone opened the front door to a well heated house. She could see nothing but white. So she continued to step forward, expecting blackness to swallow her up. Except that it never did.

As she stepped forward, she suddenly realized the bright white light was no longer there. But worse than that, there was no blackness either. She could see nothing, her vision completely useless here. It was impossibly hard to explain how something could have no lightness or darkness, but that was exactly what was happening. It was akin to awaking with a jerk from a falling dream and trying to describe the instant between almost hitting the ground and actually jerking awake.

With the absence of light, there was also a clear absence of dark. When she tried to see, there was absolutely nothing. But perhaps what disturbed her all the more was the lack of sensations of her own body. She tried to move her foot, and there was no way to move it. There was no air to allow it movement, there was no ground to stand on, no place to float or fall. There was simply nothing. Without the use of eyes to see, it was astonishingly quick how she forgot to see. For the one thing that Doctor couldn't have prepared her for was that without a casing of some kind to protect her, Amy Pond's senses had nothing to cling to. Senses were the thing that every human being from the moment of conception, had to tell them they exist. This was the place were nothing lived, nothing died, nothing was meant to exist.

Her body read the signs of nothingness and it was highly confused. It began to behave as a body that believed it was dead. The only things keeping her body alive against these odds was the mask forcing air into lungs that otherwise would forget to _be_, and her mind. Her mind was going into shock though. Shutting down non-essential functions, and slowing down some of the essential ones as it attempted to cope with this complete lack of information. A brain fed off of its senses, and hers was cut off from all things. Even the Doctor could not have anticipated the effect the Void would have on a human.

She didn't find herself missing her vision for long because her brain was telling her that she had no eyes. She was pretty sure she did physically still have eyes, but she couldn't sense them. At least, she hoped so! She knew her hands must be there, but with nothing to touch, not even air to touch her to tell her she was real, it was becoming extremely difficult to remember this. She wanted to bring her hands together, to comfort herself with her own touch, but again, the lack of anything around her, made it impossible to move her hands or arms or any part of herself. How could one clasp their hands together when there was no atmosphere with which to move them?

The only thing Amy could feel at all was the air being pushed into her lungs by a mask that thankfully didn't have senses or care. It continued to do its job. Her body was numb. At first, she could have sworn she could feel her shoes around her feet and her clothes brushing against her skin, but that had likely been a trick of the mind. A mind unable to cope the current lack of information it was receiving. Like someone with a ghost limb, their body refusing to realize a limb was actually gone, her body had forced her to feel for a few seconds until it became impossible to keep up the charade.

Something else the Doctor had failed to mention. Perhaps he didn't know it himself, but there was also the problem of time. She had absolutely no concept of it here. Even if she were to be locked in a room with no clock, she could at least have guessed whether minutes or hours had passed by, but here this was not the case. She knew the mask was only supposed to last ten minutes, but it was lasting much longer than that from what she could grasp of reality. It felt like hours, and then days. Time had no real meaning here but an eternity easily felt like it was passing her by. Wait a minute, he had mentioned it! It was becoming increasingly difficult for her to remember the details. Details of her life, details of the Doctor, details of just where she was and why.

Aside from the air being pushed into lungs she had to keep reminding herself were real, the only other sensation Amy could conjure was her own thoughts. Because soon even the adrenaline that had been running through her body at a rapid fire pace, she could no longer feel. Her heartbeat was another thing she was made completely unaware of. She couldn't feel anything anymore.

She was so stunned by how horrible all of this was, that it was no time at all, or was it all of time, before she realized she could no longer feel the air moving into her lungs. Her deafness, lack of taste and sense of smell, weren't even a problem because so many other far more major things her body was being deprived of took priority that she truly didn't even give this much thought. But when she couldn't tell if she was breathing or not, that made her panic.

She tried to kick her legs, but of course couldn't move them. She couldn't feel them. Were they still there?

She was dead. She had to be. The only thing she was now, was an idea. A thought. A group of thoughts. She clung to this for all she was worth. She couldn't close her eyes to think because there were no eyes to close. At least that is what her mind kept telling her. Was it real?

It had been days. Years. It had to of been. Too much time was passing and she had to work hard to make herself find anything rational to hang onto.

_The Doctor. _What would he tell her to do now? Think of home. She forced her thoughts to home and even though she wasn't able to conjure up a visual image of it, the idea of it was enough to help calm her. The idea of the Doctor, of Rory, of friends and her life and adventures with the Doctor.

She felt comforted by this, but then a new thought struck her. Were she able to feel anything, she knew she would have been washed over in cold dread. Maybe that was the one good thing about the Void. It took away all physical sensations. Including fear and pain.

But the thought was still there. _The rope._ How would she ever be able to find or feel a rope when she couldn't even feel or find her own hands? How could she move within a void that had nothing for her to move through? What would happen when the energy came? It couldn't find her if it couldn't move. But what if it was right on top of her? She might be in it now, and she wouldn't know. Had the Doctor known this would happen? No, he couldn't have.

Her mind was racing. Then again, it was the only part of her that existed as far as she could tell. Maybe the energy had gotten her and swallowed her whole. Maybe that was what had happened and now she was nothing more than a ghost. Except if she were a ghost, she probably would have at least been able to float, right?

Amy kept going over and over what she could possibly do to escape this nightmare. Nothing she could conceive of brought her any answers. She couldn't see to find a rope, she couldn't feel to find it, or move to find it. She couldn't hear it or smell it or anything at all. She was incapable of reaching it. She was trapped and helpless.

Unless the Doctor realized his mistake and found a way to save her, Amy Pond knew for certain, this time, she was truly dead.

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Reviews are loved!


	9. Liar Liar

There was no rope. There never would be. The Doctor knew there never _could_ be. He'd always known. It was impossible for objects to move about in the Void. It was the nothingness between everything, and anything that went there could only fill the same space, or rather, lack of space, within it. It was a bit like pasting pictures on top of pictures in a paint program. They may all be different, but in the end they would all fill out the same space. It didn't matter if it was a normal sized human girl, an enormous ball of energy, or a sphere full of daleks. They could exist in the same space simply because there was no space within which to exist in the first place. The Void was an anomaly understood by only a rare few. Nothing from existence that was brought, thrown, or came willingly into the Void could ever be aware of anything else from existence that ever came to be within the Void during the same time, though time was irrelevant there as well. If forty billion years previously something had crept into it, it existed in the same space and time as something that fell in fifty billion years in the future. Although calling it space and time was a misnomer, there was no word in existence to explain the lack of space and time that was the Void.

The Doctor told Amy he would get a rope. He told her he would throw that rope in to her. He had told Amy she should find and grab the rope and he would pull her back to safety. She was surely waiting for him, searching for the rope, fearing the energy finding her before she could grab onto the safety that was the rope and be pulled out. He left her with the impression he would find a way to get her back.

The Doctor lied.

There was no way to rescue Amy from the Void. There never had been and he'd always known that fact. He just chose not to share it with her.

He watched Amy disappear into the void with a sad sort of look. As soon as she vanished within the white light, he started to dismantle the circle of cones. He wasn't waiting for the energy to follow after her. He quietly, and quickly collected his things and placed them back in the TARDIS. Then he walked to the little pond. The pond had steam arising from it and the surface was rippling as if disturbed. He watched it several seconds until the steam cleared and the pond settled down peacefully. He then used his sonic to scan the surface. He glanced at the sonic, reading the scan. Clean. He started back toward his ship.

The energy wouldn't follow Amy. That was another lie. It couldn't follow her. But it could, and did, recognize that she was no longer in existence. Which was exactly what it needed to dissipate itself. The energy within the pond, having no Amy to feed off of, simply cooled and dispelled itself into the surrounding atmosphere. Once that happened it was harmless. The readings he obtained from the sonic told him all was well and that the pond was now nothing more than a duck pond once more. Simple as that. All was well. Except for Amy.

The Doctor entered the TARDIS and closed the door, silently making his way to the console. It was time to leave.

He'd lied to Amy about the energy for a reason. He wanted to keep her afraid. Afraid of the energy coming after her, afraid of not being able to find that rope in time, afraid of the energy getting to her before she could be rescued. There would be no rescue. There would be no rope or energy. But he needed her afraid. Fear was one of the few things likely to keep her alive.

Sighing, he shifted forward and soon the TARDIS was fading. "Hang on, Amy." He whispered to the silence around him.

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Thank you for the wonderful reviews. =] I know this chapter is short, but the next will be up soon.


	10. Delusions

"Amy, come with me." Amy slid against the soft padding of the wall behind her as she stared at him. The man who stood in the doorway watching her with concern in his clear green eyes. She didn't take her eyes off of him, nor did she answer him. She continued to slide sideways away from the door.

"You're going to die." He pleaded softly, holding a hand out to her. She shook her head vehemently. "Amy, you must listen to me...Please? Trust me."

The laugh that escaped the young red head was a clash between bitterness and true insanity. She pointed a flopping hand at him. "You...You say that every time! I'm not coming."

The Doctor leaned into the room, his hand moving closer to her. She whimpered and pushed herself into a darkened corner. "Leave me alone!"

"But Amy, I can't leave you here..." He stepped into the room, gently moving toward the frightened girl. "Come with me." He was reaching for her again.

Amy shivered. "No! No! Leave me alone!" She was screaming now, making him wince. She squeezed her eyes shut and dropped to the floor. "No. No. No. No." She chanted softly, willing this nightmare to end. When she dared open her eyes a few minutes later, she was surrounded by a swirling vortex and found herself tumbling end over end, grasping at anything she could to hang onto. Finding nothing, she could do nothing more than continue to tumble about. The Doctor appeared once more, reaching for her. "Amy, come with me." She screamed out as loud as she could. "No!" Attempting to swim through the vortex as far away from him as she could, she closed her eyes again.

_I'm not crazy!_ She reminded herself. She knew she wasn't. She remembered. She was trapped in the Void. In the nothingness. She knew that much. Just when she thought she was nothing more than a thought and never would be, just when she figured even her thoughts would vanish, a jolt happened. A jolt of fear. It was an emotion. It told her she was still alive. Fear of the unknown. Fear of the known. Fear of the energy. It would come for her. And just as suddenly as she remembered about the energy, she found her feet. Along with her feet came toes and torso, arms and hands, head, eyes, ears, all of the glorious things she'd thought she lost.

She found herself in the middle of a mountain region facing off against a cliff. She'd tugged the oxygen mask off and dropped to her knees. She closed her eyes against the intensity of the sensations bombarding her body. Suddenly she felt so much! The cold air, the warmth of her own skin, the scratchy feel of her clothing, the ache in her head, the burning of her lungs. It was all too much and she'd fallen to her knees, remaining there until the pains and intensity subsided.

The next thing she knew, the Doctor was there, calling to her, asking her to come and to trust him. She could see only him. She took his hand and as soon as she had, everything changed.

She was running for her life from a swirl of hot white energy that was chasing after her, wanting to swallow her up. She knew she would die and the Doctor had tried to lead her right into it! As she ran she blinked and things changed again. She found herself in a forest, a coffee shop, a small cottage, a hospital, and now the vortex. Each time, the Doctor appeared to her asking for her trust him, imploring her to come. But any time she tried to trust him and took his hand, he lead her directly to the hungry energy and laughed wickedly as he pushed her toward it. He wanted to kill her!

That was when Amy realized something important. It couldn't be the Doctor. It wasn't real. None of this was real. It was probably the energy playing with her mind. It had surely gotten sucked into the Void as well and wanted her so it was trying to play games with her to trick her into itself. She didn't know how it could, or if it was capable of a conscious thought like that, but that was what she was convinced of. She was still stuck in the Void and just didn't sense it. Somehow the energy had gotten into her mind though! It was tricking her bad. It even had the power to bring sight to her visions!

She was dreaming, or at least in a deep state of thought, she realized. Her body still suspended in the Void of nothingness because the Doctor hadn't told her how to move to find the rope in this place. She couldn't sense it so she was trapped within her own mind, she realized. It was too painful. She didn't know how to get out of her mind, but she didn't want to.

She couldn't bear the thought of facing that nothingness head on again. This was better. Even having to run from the image they kept throwing at her of the Doctor was better than nothingness. The Void was her worst nightmare. Worse even than an evil Doctor apparently because she kept running from him rather than trying to wake herself up.

But she was aware this wasn't real. It sure felt real! Parts of it felt so real she felt she was in physical pain because of it.

She dropped back down and found herself stuck back in the little cottage again. The Doctor came in through the front door and held his hand out to her. "Amy. You have to come with me. Come to me please? Trust me." His wording was always at least a little different, except the 'trust me'. She glared at him and climbed out the window as he hurried across the room to her. She hopped out and was suddenly in a swirl of clouds. This time the Doctor was seated on a cloud nearby and stood up, looking over at her and once more asked her to come to him.

She ignored him and waited for this new delusion to end. And end it did, winding her back up at the forest. It was a never ending cycle of going from one bad dream to the next. Sometimes the same one over and over again, but the one constant was the Doctor. And when she did bother with him, the next constant was the energy coming after her.

"I'm really hating this!" She hollered over the large cliff she was currently standing at the edge of. She looked over her shoulder to see the Doctor standing a good six feet away with a worried look rapidly spreading across his unique features. She rolled her eyes. "Really I can't stand it! I just want done with it already!"

"Amy...Come here. Come toward me..." He took a step toward her, clearly worried about her being so close to the cliff's edge and more than likely very worried she again wouldn't take his hand and let him lead her into the energy that would consume her out of existence even worse than the Void had.

"Oh yeah, and let you lead me into my death! Ha! I think not, 'Doctor'." She turned back to the cliff, gazing out as her toes dangled over the edge. She supposed she could just dive down and find herself in the next nightmare. The cool breeze on her skin while hanging over the cliff's edge felt good though.

"Amy," The Doctor seemed to be choosing his words carefully. "The only death you need worry about is the one that will happen if you fall, now come away from the edge..." She glanced back at him. If she didn't know better, she could have sworn she saw a bead of sweat on his forehead. "Oh, you're good. You got the concerned look down and even that furrowed brow of yours." She acknowledged. "I'm almost impressed."

"You have to listen to me Amelia!" He said sharply, the anger clearly representing some great fear. The things her mind came up with were astonishing to her. "Get away from the edge." He said, his hands moving with each word for emphasis, his steps moving slightly closer.

"Oh don't you come any closer!" She threatened, teetering so that she slightly wavered over the edge of the cliff. He froze, watching helplessly.

"You tell that energy it can try to trick me all it likes, it won't work!" She made a 'humph' sound and turned back the the great canyon that lay before her. Jagged rocky hills as big as mountains themselves lay below. So deep were they that she couldn't see their bases. She could only make out the tops of them, the rest shrouded in dark shadows. It was meters down and meters across. It was truly beautiful and she didn't mind the view at all. She imagined falling. Falling would feel nice. Free falling through the air like that until she wound up in the next dream. She wondered where it might take her next. Would she ever get out of this endless nightmare loop? Would she ever make it out of the Void? Alive?

"The energy is gone. It never was going to come after you once you entered the Void. Amy, please. You _have_ to trust me!" He sounded desperate now. "Please come away from the edge. If I step back, will you come away?"

That was interesting. She turned her body fully to face him, her back to the cliff though her heels were only an inch from it. She tilted her head as she peered at him. "Please?" He pleaded, his eyes full of so many emotions they seemed to spill over one another in an impossible stream. He did look afraid, she supposed. More so than some of the other Doctor delusions she'd been having. Yet, her mind was surely just playing more tricks on her. The energy had somehow taken a hold and was becoming more clever.

She narrowed her eyes. "You're just going to grab me when I come away from the edge and drag me into the energy." She accused. The wind on her back felt nice, it was a mild breeze yet very calming. She wasn't in a big hurry to leave this delusion.

He took several steps back and opened his arms in a wide gesture of being harmless. "Amy Pond. Brilliant, mad, Amy Pond. You must listen to me! If you fall off the edge of that cliff, you will plummet to your death! This isn't a trick, and it isn't in your mind. This is a very real world the Void has spit you out into. Now, please, come to me?" He waved his hands toward himself.

Amy wanted nothing more than to run to him and take his hand, or hug him even. She needed a hug very badly. But she knew if she did, she would just end up running for her life again. She watched him and he watched her, his stance more nervous and edgy than hers. What he said made sense, but so had it while she'd been in a cave dream and he'd come up and pleaded with her that a bear was going to eat her if she didn't come with him. "Just leave me alone." She said quietly, rubbing her head. It was hurting again and she wanted away from this dream Doctor who was looking so full of concern for her that it hurt to see.

She started to take a step backward, temporarily forgetting her place.

"Amy, No!" The Doctor was suddenly a blur of motion. He sprinted toward her at top speed. She couldn't grasp why he was suddenly rushing when all of the other Doctors who had run toward her had been in some kind of slow motion. Just as her foot was about to settle on the ground behind her, she realized her mistake. There was no ground for it to settle on! It kept sinking down, down, searching and realized all too late it was over the edge of the side of the rocky cliff.

She gave a yelp as she started to lose her balance. Even though she didn't want to, and tried to remind herself it was all a dream, instinct kicked in and she reached out for the Doctor. She felt herself starting to fall back, her upper body now hanging over the cliff's edge as well. There was no way to gain her balance back with just one foot!

She screamed as she started to fall back. Something soft, warm, and firm was suddenly gripping her hand and keeping her from completely falling over the edge. She looked and saw the Doctor grasping one of her hands tightly with both of his, a severely strained look on his face. Was he going to take her off to the energy? The fear had her suddenly twisting to try to break free, more interested in escaping the energy than falling from the cliff. A cool free fall over a cliff's edge always felt like an adrenalin rush in a dream and it would keep her safe from this weird dream Doctor.

"No!" The Doctor cried, giving her a sudden rough yank toward himself. He overpowered her and wrapped her up in his arms. She felt herself being pressed against him. His arm went tightly around her back, his other patted the back of her head. He wasn't letting go for anything.

"Let me go!" She yelled, trying to twist free. A dry sob escaped her lips. "Please!"

"Amy. Calm down. You have to understand." He sounded sorry about something as he clung to her, hugging her to him tighter. "This is _real_. I'm real! You're real! This is all very real! Listen to me now." He sounded demanding, and far less afraid than he had. He let go of his grip on her only to cup her face, peering directly into her eyes. "Don't you feel it? The pain, the air, your lungs, your body? Its all real. This is not in your mind. This is reality. The Void spit you out as it was always meant to do."

Amy was completely confused. Why wasn't he dragging her off into the energy? "What do you mean? The energy was supposed to come into the Void and I was supposed to find the rope! How can I find the rope?"

"No," He sighed. "Amy," He leaned forward and pressed an affectionate kiss to her forehead. "The energy was never meant to be in the Void. It was a lie. A clever lie to keep you alive, except that it nearly killed you." He finally let go of her head, but slid his hand down to grip hers.

"I don't understand..." What was going on? Amy thought about it. It was true that the first time she'd wound up in this cliff dream it had felt overwhelmingly real, but then it turned out to just be fake. Hadn't it? "This was all just a dream...Isn't it a dream?"

"No." The Doctor shook his head and pulled Amy further away from the cliff's edge. "The microbe on your wrist was supposed to help ease you into sensations again once you exited the Void, but it didn't work, apparently. Because you were overwhelmed. Your body was deprived of all of your senses too long that when the Void dumped you here, your senses were bombarded and your mind couldn't handle it all so it shut down, went into unconsciousness. Then you started to dream. Your thoughts and dreams were meant to keep you scared to keep your alive while in the Void. If they became too complacent you would relax enough to completely blink yourself out of existence. Being in the Void can make you lose your mind. You weren't secured in any structure meant to withstand nothingness and therefore the Void refused you, as it was meant to. It always does. You'd need a special capsule, structure or ship to remain in the Void for any period of time over about two minutes. Otherwise it spits you out."

"If that's true..." Amy blinked, suddenly realizing the Doctor's lies. "Then why did you tell me there would be a rope? Why did you insist on making a big deal about the energy following me? Where is it now? How did you find me? And why did the Void spit me out here in the middle of nowhere?"

"I lied to keep you alive, as I said." He stated unapologetically. "You needed to be afraid and that was the best way I could think to do it. Keep you afraid and anxious, worried about finding the rope and the energy coming after you. Might have been too affective." He murmured this last part thoughtfully as he glanced over at the cliff's edge again. Amy could have sworn a look of fear crossed his face briefly again before it settled into calmness. He started pulling her across the rocky land and she made out a splotch of blue a bit away. The TARDIS.

He kept explaining as he pulled her along. "The energy was feeding off of you and when it didn't sense you any longer, it dissolved and became harmless so it is gone now. I found you because the TARDIS was able to follow your signal, the one on the microbe helped narrow down the search more specifically. You can remove it now. And," He glanced around as they approached the ship and she scratched the microbe off. "The Void is just that, a void. It can't come up with something out of nothing, so it came up with this place from your own mind. That is why I did tell you to think of home..." He said, giving her a look. She hadn't thought of home very well. She never did rely on any one thing or person too well. "It tossed you out where you told it to. You had been thinking of this place, must have seen it in a photograph some time? So here you are. Technically it didn't toss you out though, you pulled yourself out with your own thoughts because you are something and the Void is not." He didn't bother to go into a detailed scientific explanation that he knew she wouldn't understand. Most didn't understand it.

The place they were was some mountainous region in the Rocky Mountains she'd seen on a post card once.

"You lied to me." She stated, giving him a light glare. Then she yanked her hand free and gave him a proper glare. He turned to look at her. It was all sinking in now. Her eyes were widening now. "You lied and because of you I thought I was still in the dream and I almost fell off a cliff! I almost_ jumped _off it!" That caused the Doctor's eyes to match hers. He waited patiently, letting her say what she needed to. "I could have died!_ Died_! And you didn't even tell me this could happen! That my mind would bring me to some place real! And-And being in the Void was terrible! It was nothing and nothing is worse than anything!" He listened with interest, never having been in there himself. He knew it couldn't have been fun for her. "I couldn't move! My body started shutting down or well at least it told me it was! I thought I was dead! I could have been! And because my senses went all off, I couldn't tell real from a dream! It was terrible. I don't ever want to experience anything like it again. And especially after I already died once. Once is more than enough! Don't..." She waved a finger at him. "Don't you ever do that to me again." She marched passed him into the TARDIS and slammed the door on him.

The Doctor knew she would need some time to recover from all of this. He nodded at the closed door. "Well, that went better than expected."

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You guys are awesome! Thanks for encouraging me to keep writing and the wonderful reviews!


	11. End

Amy's head had recovered from the ordeal. So had the rest of her. Her body was achy and sore for a solid week after their adventures, but she was ready to go now. And was desperate to get to another planet. The Doctor promised! But there was this little problem she had to deal with first.

"So, you see, speaking from a purely metaphysical standpoint, this is a pragmatic view of the paradox you created." The Doctor held a laser pointer in one hand and had a screen up on the wall filled with numbers and diagrams. Amy had her head in her hand and her elbow resting on a wooden desk surface. Her ankles were crossed under the table. The table held a pen, a thick note pad and a glass of water. They'd been at this for hours.

Despite all of her pleading that this was completely unnecessary, that she had learned her lesson, and even that what she'd gone through to fix her mistake had been more than punishment enough, he still insisted on this lecture. She was only half able to follow what he was talking about most of the time during the lecture and he very well knew it. That sure didn't stop him.

"Are you taking notes, Miss Pond? You should do, there will be a test after to make sure you've learned what you should." The Doctor said suddenly, making Amy sit up straighter and stare.

"A test? You didn't say anything about a test, Doctor!" She shook her head. "I'm not doing any test!"

He put down the pointer and walked forward, placing his hands on either side of the desk. "Then tell me, what have you learned from all of this?"

"Never, ever steal your ship, or cause a paradox if I don't want to be bored to death by another one of your lectures." She retorted. Though the true gravity of the situation was never lost on her. She knew very well the hell she'd put them both through, particularly herself, and she wasn't about to go there again. Ever.

His face twisted into some not quite readable expression for a moment. Finally he reached over and patted her head. "Good girl. Lesson over." He knew she got it regardless of her responses now. He knew she knew what she'd done was very wrong on so many levels and extremely dangerous. He was sure that wouldn't be a problem anymore. He finally smiled brightly and moved away from the desk. "So, I promised you a planet. Were to now?"

Amy jumped up excitedly. "Anywhere that isn't here! And it has to be a planet! A real one that isn't Earth!" She hurried out of the classroom and the Doctor followed, giving a nod to the bemused professor who watched them turn and leave the college they'd entered hours ago with some kind of pass, the Doctor's psychic paper, claiming he was a professor and she was his student. He watched the two head off, giggling and laughing.

On to their next adventure.

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I hope you enjoyed this adventure. There may be a sequel depending on if there is enough interest in it.


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